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THE 

ENGLISH  AND  FOREIGN 
PHILOSOPHICAL   LIBRARY. 


VOLUME  XXVII. 


COMPARATIVE  HISTORY 


OF   THE 


EGYPTIAN  AND  MESOPOTAMIAN 
RELIGIONS. 


By   C.    P.    TIELE. 


EGYPT,  BABEL-ASSÜR,  YEMEN,  HAERAN,  PH(ENIC1A,  ISRAEL. 

-     f 


VOL.  I. -HISTORY  .OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  DUTCH,   WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION 
OF  THE  AUTHOR, 


By  JAMES  BALLINGAL. 


BOSTON: 
HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN    AND    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK:  11  EAST  SEVENTEENTH  STREET. 

©fjc  l&iberstoe  press,  (Camfrrfogc. 
18S2. 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


EGYPTIAN    EELIGION. 


DR.   C.   P.  "TIELE. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  DUTCH,  WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION 
OF  THE  A  UTHOR, 

By  JAMES  BALLINGAL. 


BOSTON": 
HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN    AND    COMPANY. 

NEW  YORK:  11  EAST  SEVENTEENTH  STREET. 

1882. 


ƒ?  Ill  II  CE  TON 
r.LÜ.  OCT  1882 

TH  30  LUG  1 1. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


This  volume  is  the  English  translation  of  the  first  portion 
of  my  "  Comparative  History  of  the  Egyptian  and  Meso- 
potamian  (Hamitic  and  Semitic)  Eeligions."  It  has  been 
considered  advisable  not  to  publish  more  than  this  first 
portion  at  present ;  but  should  it  be  received  favourably, 
the  publication  of  the  other  portion,  which  treats  of  the 
Babylonian- Assyrian  religion,  and  of  the  religions  of  Phoe- 
nicia and  Israel,  will,  it  is  intended,  follow. 

While  the  present  volume  may  be  looked  upon  as  form- 
ing by  itself  a  separate  whole,  I,  nevertheless,  wish  it  to 
be  kept  in  mind  that  it  has  been  written  as  part  of  a  larger 
work,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  comparative  religious 
history.  It  does  not  claim  to  be  an  exhaustive  history  of 
the  Egyptian  religion. 

Owing  to  the  progress  made  in  Egyptian  studies  since 
1872,  when  the  original  work  was  published,  revision  has 
been  necessary,  and  numerous  alterations  and  additions 
have  been  made.  Of  this  thorough  revision  the  English 
translation  has  had  full  advantage,  and  may,  in  fact,  be 


x  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

considered  as  an  amended  and  improved  version  of  the 

original  work. 

I  gave  my  sanction  to  the  translation  being  made ;  and 
after  having  gone  over  it  carefully,  I  can  testify  that  Mr. 
Ballingal  has  throughout  reproduced  my  thoughts  with 

the  greatest  accuracy. 

C.  P.  TIELE. 
Leiden,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction       .        .         .        .        .        •        •       xv-xxm 
CHAPTER  I. 

NATIONALITY    OF   THE   INHABITANTS    OF    THE   NILE   VALLEY. 

Antiquity  of  Egyptian  civilisation  —  Origin  and  race  of 
Egyptian  people— Constituent  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion— North  and  South 3 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SACRED   LITERATURE. 

Greek  accounts— Egyptian  records— " Book  of  the  Dead"— 

Magical  papyri— Sacred  hymns,  &c 20 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE   RELIGION   OF   THINIS-ABYDOS. 

Antiquity  of  Egyptian  worships  —  Osiris  -  worship— Set— 
Horos— Isis— Nephthys— Hathor— Thot— Anubis  —  Seb 
and  Nu— The  Sun  myth  and  the  doctrine  of  Immortality        35 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IY. 

THE    RELIGION    OF   HELIOPOLIS. 

PAG5 

Heliopolis — Correspondence  of  Osiris-  and  Ra-worship — Ra- 
Tnm — Dualistic  character  of  Heliopolitan  worship — 
Hymns  of  Ra — Shu  and  Tefnut — Review        ...         74 

CHAPTER  V. 

RELIGION    UNDER   THE    OLD    KINGDOM. 

Memphis— Ptah- worship— Not  Phoenician— Sechet  (Bast)  and 
Neith — Sekru — Animal  worship — Deification  of  kings 
— Religion  under  Chufu  and  Chafra — The  temples — 
Religion  under  the  Sixth  Dynasty — Review    ...         90 

CHAPTER  YI. 

RELIGION    UNDER   THE    MIDDLE    KINGDOM. 

Dynasties— Chem,  god  of  Koptos— Munt,  of  Hermonthis — 
Religion  of  this  period  agricultural  in  character— Other 
worships  not  neglected — Chnum,  Sati,  and  Anuka — 
Sebak — Hapi,  god  of  the  Nile — Review  .        .        .        .120 

CHAPTER  YII. 

RELIGION    UNDER   THE    NEW    KINGDOM. 

The  Hyksös — Religion  under  them — The  new  kingdom — 
Amun  of  Thebes — Amun-ra — Approach  to  monotheism 
— -€honsu — Other  gods  reformed  after  pattern  of  Amun- 
ra — Religious  revolution  under  Amenophis  IV. — Aten-ra  W 
— Reaction  under  Horemhib — Religion  under  Seti  I.  and 
Ramses  II. — Apis- worship — Treaty  with  Chetasir  — 
Decline  of  South — Increase  of  priestly  power  and  of 
superstition — Review 141 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

EGYPTIAN    RELIGION    FROM   THE   FALL    OF    THE    RAMESIDS 
TO    THE   PERSIAN    CONQUEST. 

PAGE 

Preponderance  of  the  North — Religion  of.Mendes — Of  Bu- 
bastis  —  Sechet  and  Bast  two  forms  of  the  same  deity 
—  Ethiopian  conquerors  —  Pianchi — Amun-meri-nut  — 
Religion  under  the  Saitic  kings — Town  and  temple  of 
Sa'is — Cambyses — Uzahor-pen-res — Oracle  of  Amun — 
Transition  to  Universalism 186 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CHARACTER  AND    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    THE    EGYPTIAN    RELIGION. 

Two  principal  phenomena — Hypothesis  of  esoteric  and  exo- 
teric doctrine  —  Symbolic-mystic  tendency  —  Combina- 
tion of  monotheism  and  polytheism — Egyptian  religion 
symbolic,  theocratic,  monarchic,  polytheistic — Principal 
idea,  life — Religion  and  art — Religion  and  morality       .       216 


INTRODUCTION. 


My  purpose  is  to  write  a  chapter  of  the  comparative 
history  of  the  ancient  religions,  not  a  religious  history  of 
antiquity.  The  latter  would  perhaps  be  the  more  inte- 
resting of  the  two,  hut  I  do  not  think  that  the  time  for 
it  has  yet  come,  and  I  for  one  do  not,  at  the  present  stage 
of  our  knowledge,  feel  equal  to  the  task.1  It  would  indeed 
be  a  most  attractive  undertaking  to  delineate  the  develop- 
ment of  religion  among  the  different  nations  of  antiquity 
who  have  succeeded  each  other  in  the  sovereignty  of  the 
world ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  sketch  religious  thought  in 
history.  But,  in  order  to  do  this,  to  climb  painfully  step 
by  step  from  the  lowest  to  the  more  advanced,  from  rude 
nature- worship  to  religions  in  which  the  moral  order  of 
the  world  is  recognised  and  reverenced  side  by  side  with 
the  natural,  and  from  these  again  up  to  others  in  which 
moral  ideas  are  exclusively  dominant  and  the  standpoint 
of  nature-worship  wholly  abandoned, — to  do  this,  we  must 
first  possess  an  historical  view  of  the  different  religions 
themselves  mutually  compared,  and  that  is  what  I  shall 
now  in  part  endeavour  to  give. 

1  I  have,  however,  made  the  at-  Estlin  Carpenter,  "Outlines  of  the 

tempt  to  give  an  outline  of  such  a  History  of  Religion  to  the  Spread  of 

history   in   a    little    book   recently  the  Universal  Religions."    London : 

translated  into  English  by  Professor  Triibner  &  Co. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

As  in  this  task  I  shall  at  first  confine  myself  to  ancient 
religions,  I  must  explain  what  I  understand  these  to  be. 
The  ancient  religions  have  one  peculiarity,  common  to  them 
all,  by  which  they  are  distinguished  from  the  modern : 
they  are  all  tribal  or  national  religions  ;  they  are  all  based 
on  particularism.  Even  a  superficial  observer  will  notice 
that  religious  history  naturally  divides  itself  into  two 
great  parts,  two  periods  or  ages  of  the  world  which  are 
essentially  and  markedly  distinct.  The  prehistoric  period 
as  to  which  we  can  only  venture  upon  conjectures  and 
hypotheses,  and  the  study  of  which  properly  constitutes 
the  palseontological  section  of  the  science  of  religion,  is 
everywhere  followed  by  that  of  the  tribal,  national,  and 
state  religions,  during  which  every  religion  belonged,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  to  a  particular  tribe  or  tribal  league,  to  a 
nation  or  a  state,  and  no  one  dreamed  of  spreading  it  more 
widely.  To  belong  to  a  nation,  to  be  counted  as  one  of  a 
tribe,  is  one  and  the  same  thing  as  to  worship  the  gods  of 
the  country,  the  national  gods.  Whether  a  separate  and 
ordered  priesthood  existed  or  not,  whether  the  priests 
dominated  the  princes,  or  the  princes  the  priests,  as  soon 
as  a  state  was  formed,  be  it  monarchy,  oligarchy,  or  re- 
public, extending  like  the  Celestial  Empire  over  half  a 
continent,  or,  like  Carthage,  confined  to  a  town  and  its 
colonies,  in  every  case  the  religion  of  the  people  became 
the  religion  of  the  state,  closely  bound  up  with  it,  and  by 
it  maintained,  defended,  and,  when  necessary,  imposed  by 
force.  The  idea  of  a  separation  between  religion  and  the 
state  is  utterly  foreign  to  all  the  religions  of  antiquity. 
To  deny  the  gods  of  one's  fathers  is  the  same  thing  as  to 
deny  one's  nationality.  The  existence  of  foreign  gods  was 
not  denied,  but  it  was  believed  that  they  were  confined  to 
the  people  over  whom  they  ruled,  that  their  power  reached 


INTRODUCTION.  xvii 

no  farther ;  and  men  constantly  imagined  as  to  this  that 
the  foreign  gods  were  less  powerful  than  their  own. 
Usually  they  did  not  worship  them,  though  they  had  no 
doubts  about  their  real  existence;  sometimes,  especially 
when  the  worshippers  of  foreign  gods  were  enemies,  they 
hated  them  no  less  than  their  worshippers,  and  looked 
upon  them  as  evil  hurtful  beings,  powers  of  darkness. 
Not  unfrequently  a  people  adopted,  not  indeed  the  reli- 
gion, but  the  gods  of  their  neighbours;  these,  however, 
never  became  genuine  national  gods  of  that  people  unless 
they  first  laid  aside  their  original  nationality.  In  no  case 
was  a  place  given  them  in  the  ancestral  pantheon  if  they 
did  not  wholly  alter  their  form,  character,  appearance,  and 
not  seldom,  their  very  name.1 

The  Greeks  transformed  the  myths  of  Aphrodite,  Hera- 
kles,  Dionysus,  by  introducing  into   them  Semitic  ele- 


1  A  case  which  is  given  on  a  stone 
tablet  (stele)  brought  from  Thebes 
and  preserved  in  the  Imperial  Li- 
brary at  Paris,  and  which  seems  to 
form  an  exception  to  this,  which  is 
certainly  the  general  rule,  stands 
quite  alone  and  rather  confirms  it. 
The  prince  of  Buchten  or  Bachten 
(Behistan  ?)  in  Asia,  whose  daughter 
was  the  wife  of  Ramses  XII.,  king 
of  Egypt,  besought  him  to  send  a 
physician  skilful  enough  to  cure  his 
other  daughter,  Bent-ent-resht,  who 
was  ill  of  a  nervous  disease.  When 
the  physician  had  failed,  he  asked 
if  his  son-in-law  would  send  him  no 
less  than  one  of  his  gods,  the  Theban 
god  Chonsu,  in  order  that  through 
his  influence  the  evil  spirit  might  be 
driven  out.  This  was  done,  and 
when  it  was  proved  that  the  disease 
could  not  resist  the  power  of  Chonsu, 
the  Asiatic  prince  would  not  allow 
him  to  go  home  again.     Soon,  how- 


ever, he  had  cause  to  regret  what, 
in  those  days,  must  have  been  looked 
upon  as  a  deed  of  violence ;  and  when 
he  himself,  being  sick,  dreamed  that 
the  god  of  Thebes,  in  the  form  of  a 
sparrow-hawk,  sent  curses  from  his 
sanctuary,  he  no  longer  withheld 
him,  but  sent  him  back  to  his  old 
home.  It  is  evident  here  that  the 
Asiatic  prince,  while  recognising  the 
power  of  Chonsu,  looked  upon  him 
all  along  as  a  foreign  god ;  and  we 
also  see  how  strong  the  conviction 
was  that  each  god  belonged  to  a 
particular  nation ;  nay,  even  to  a  par- 
ticular spot.  See  Brugsch,  Histoire 
d' Egypte,  i.  206-209;  E.  Lenormant, 
Manuel  de  l'Histoire  Ancienne  de 
l'Orient,  i.  p.  302  et  seq.  If,  as  is  pos- 
sible, the  story  is  only  a  legend  with- 
out historical  value,  or,  as  Wiede- 
mann has  it,  a  novel,  the  above  con- 
clusions retain  their  force. 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

ments,  but  it  is  with  difficulty  that  these  gods  can  be  dis- 
tinguished from  those  that  are  purely  Hellenic.  Who  would 
perceive  in  the  charming,  graceful  Cyprian  goddess  the 
Ashthoreth  of  the  Phoenicians  ;  who,  in  the  beautiful  myth 
of  her  birth  out  of  the  foam  of  the  sea,  would  recognise  the 
tasteless  nature  myth  of  the  Phoenician  cosmogony, if  ample 
proof  did  not  compel  the  acknowledgment  of  their  identity  ? 
The  Anahita  of  the  Persians  has  something  in  common 
with  the  Chaldean  mother  of  the  gods  Anat,  but  how  com- 
pletely has  the  form  of  this  goddess  been  recast  under 
the  influence  of  the  Aryan  spirit !  Serapis,  brought  by  a 
mandate  of  Ptoleraseus  Soter  from  Sinope  to  Egypt,  never 
obtained  the  full  rights  of  a  citizen  in  the  Osirian  mytho- 
logy, and  received  homage  only  because  people  saw  in  his 
name  a  combination  of  the  names  of  two  ancient  Egyptian 
divinities,  Osiris  and  Apis,  Asar-hapi.1  The  Asiatic  god 
was  thus  obliged  to  assume  an  Egyptian  shape  in  order  to 
obtain  the  homage  of  the  Egyptians ;  and,  in  spite  of  the 
protection  of  the  king,  even  this  was  only  grudgingly  ren- 
dered. Many  more  examples  could  be  adduced  to  prove 
the  same  thing.  The  national  element  stood  in  the  fore- 
ground in  all  the  ancient  religions.  It  is  true,  intolerance 
did  not  always  prevail.  Erom  political  motives,  conquerors 
like  Darius  Hystaspes,  and  even  Cambyses  in  his  best  days, 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  others,  paid  a  certain  degree  of  wor- 
ship to  the  gods  of  the  nations  whom  they  had  conquered  ; 
but  this  was  done  precisely  in  order  to  show  publicly  that 
they  had  become  the  lawful  lords  of  the  country.  There 
was  no  other  design  in  it  than  merely  to  soothe  the  national 


1  See   the  passages  in  Plutarch,  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  2d  series, 

Pausanias,    Tacitus,    Clemens    Al.,  i.  p.  360  et  seq.    See  also  E.  Plew,  De 

and  other  authors  of  antiquity,  in  Sarapide  :  Kegiom.  1S6S,  where  the 

Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs  question  is  pretty  fully  gone  into. 


INTRODUCTION.  xix 

pride  of  the  humbled  people.  This,  moreover,  did  not 
happen  till  the  time  when  the  old  conception  had  begun 
to  yield,  and  the  forerunners  of  a  new  era  were  beginning 
to  show  themselves.  Besides,  while  they  might  as  princes 
judge  it  necessary  to  bring  an  offering  to  the  gods  of  a 
conquered  people,  they  yet  at  the  same  time  remained 
faithful  to  the  gods  of  their  own  race.  Darius  continued 
to  draw  up  his  decrees  in  the  name  of  the  great  Aura- 
mazda  alone,  and  the  Greeks  were  not  provoked  at  the 
comedy  played  by  Alexander  in  the  Oasis  of  Ammon,  for 
they  had  contrived  to  find  in  this  African  god  a  form  of 
their  own  Zeus. 

It  was,  moreover,  quite  natural  in  the  common  view 
that  another  nation  should  have  another  worship  ;  that 
the  boundaries  of  the  land  should  be  also  the  boundaries 
of  the  religion  in  which  men  found  the  greatest  satisfac- 
tion of  their  religious  needs.  Herodotus  can  tell,  without 
the  least  danger,  about  all  sorts  of  foreign  religious  cus- 
toms and  ideas,  and  does  not  need  to  be  afraid  lest  the 
Greeks  should  thereby  be  led  into  doubt,  or  lest  the  ques- 
tion might  arise  in  any  of  their  minds,  Is  the  worship  of 
Osiris  or  Ptah,  of  B3I  or  Ormazd,  perchance  better  and 
more  exalted  than  that  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  and  the 
Delphic  Apollo  ?  The  Israelite  himself,  in  whose  eyes  the 
gods  of  the  Gojim  were,  when  compared  to  Jahveh,  mere 
gods  of  clay  and  as  vanity,  never  thought  of  making  pro- 
selytes to  his  religion  till  certain  neighbouring  nations  set 
him  the  example,  and  already  the  conception  of  a  universal 
religion  had  begun  to  mature.  "  Your  people  is  my  people, 
and  your  god  my  God,"1  was,  in  ancient  times,  a  synonym, 
and  the  two  went  always  together.  As  yet  no  one  had 
any  concex^tion  of  a  world-religion.  Men  developed,  re- 
1  Ruth  i.  16. 


xx  INTRODUCTION. 

formed,  modified,  and  enriched  at  need  their  own  religion, 
but  held  by  it  always,  and  considered  it  as  treason  to  the 
state  to  introduce  the  worship  of  strange  gods.  Thus  the 
Eomans  honoured  everywhere  the  native  gods  of  the  na- 
tions who  had  not  been  able  to  resist  the  victorious  power 
of  their  sword,  but  persecuted  all  who  wished  to  introduce 
strange  gods  into  the  great  Eoman  Empire.  It  is  true  that 
by  this  time  the  new  period  had  already  come,  and  the 
evil  could  no  longer  be  stemmed. 

The  new  era,  the  second  great  world-period,  does  not 
begin  everywhere  at  once :  it  is  earlier  with  some  nations 
than  with  others ;  in  some  it  has  not  yet  begun  at  all. 

As  particularism  is  the  special  mark  of  the  first,  so 
universalism  is  the  mark  peculiar  to  this  second  period. 
The  new  religions  are  no  longer  national  religions  but 
world  -  religions.  They  spring  from  the  thought  that 
religion  is  the  concern  not  of  a  nation  but  of  humanity, 
and  therefore  ought  no  longer  to  be  tied  down  to  any 
nationality.  They  speak  not  one  but  many  tongues.  They 
are  not  content  with  the  allegiance  of  the  nation  by  whose 
means  they  rise  into  being,  but  immediately  begin  to 
extend  themselves  even  to  utterly  foreign  and  barbarous 
nations,  revealing  very  clearly  that  their  aim  is  to  conquer 
all  mankind. 

And  if  in  course  of  time  a  universal  religion  of  this 
kind  assumes  among  the  people  who  profess  it  a  national 
character,  if  it  should  even  become  at  first,  as  in  most 
cases,  a  state  religion,  the  feeling  of  unity  is  never  wholly 
lost ;  with  all  their  differences  in  forms  and  customs,  men 
feel  themselves  united  as  to  the  main  thing.  The  old 
principle  still  goes  on  working,  and  reaction  follows  on 
every  step  of  forward  progress ;  but  the  new  power  is  too 
strong  not  to  be  victorious,  and  gains  ground  persistently. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxi 

The  revolution  brought  about  by  religious  universalismisthe 
greatest  and  most  complete  which  the  history  of  the  world 
can  show ;  all  others,  political  or  social,  are  as  nothing  com- 
pared to  this.  One  religion  spread  over  all  the  countries 
from  Ceylon  and  Java  to  Siberia,  one  faith  from  Persia  to 
Spain — in  the  days  of  antiquity  such  a  conception  would 
have  been  rejected  as  a  chimera.  The  Koman  was  of  opinion 
that  the  whole  world  belonged  by  rights  to  him.  It  seemed 
to  him  quite  natural  that  there  should  be  a  universal  empire 
founded  and  maintained  by  the  sword,  a  varied  medley  of 
nations  brought  into  subjection  to  the  commander-in-chief 
of  his  victorious  army  elected  by  the  host  to  be  emperor ; 
but  if  it  had  been  foretold  to  him  that  the  high-priest  of 
Eome  would  one  day  in  virtue  of  his  office  lay  down  the 
law  for  the  nations  and  princes  of  the  whole  of  the  West, 
he  would  not  have  believed  it.  Can  we  wonder,  then, 
that  such  a  change  did  not  come  about  suddenly,  but  that 
we  can  see  it  slowly  approaching,  slowly  preparing  before- 
hand, and  accomplished  at  last  only  through  great  convul- 
sions ?  The  east  of  Asia  seems  to  have  become  ripe  for  it 
sooner  than  the  west ;  Europe  and  Western  Asia  sooner 
than  Mid- Asia  and  Africa.  Five  centuries  before  the 
first  missionaries  of  the  Gospel  set  out  from  Palestine  for 
Greece,  Egypt,  and  Italy,  to  proclaim  the  crucified  King 
of  the  Jews  to  the  civilised  peoples  who  inhabited  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  as  their  Ptedeemer, 
accordingly  before  the  rise  on  the  borders  of  the  Semitic 
and  Aryan  territory  of  the  noblest  world-religion  which, 
originating  among  the  Semites,  was  rejected  by  them  and 
accepted  by  the  Aryans ; — five  centuries  before  this  time 
that  religious  communion  was  founded  in  Hindostan 
which  not  only  stirred  the  Brahmanic  world,  but,  long 
before  it  was  banished  out  of  India  by  the  Brahmans, 


xxii  INTRODUCTION. 

already  numbered  by  millions  its  adherents  among  the 
other  nations  of  Eastern  Asia.     While  Buddhism  had 
thus   conquered   the    Turanian   world,  and   had   already 
obtained  a  firm  hold  on  the  Tibetans,  Chinese,  and  Tar- 
tars, Christianity  began  its  conquests  among  the  Aryans 
of  Europe.     And  again,  five  centuries  later,  there  arose 
in  Arabia  the  youngest   world-religion,  a  pure  Semitic 
one,  which  was  successful  in  driving  Christianity,  which, 
through   the   influence   of  the   Aryan   spirit,  had   freed 
itself  from  many  Semitic  peculiarities,  out  of  the  whole 
of   the   territory   in   which    the    Semites   had   formerly 
borne  sway ;  but,   nevertheless,  in   all   countries   where 
the  higher  civilisation   prevailed,  Mohammedanism  was 
wholly  thrown  into  the  shade   by  Christianity.      Still, 
though  Islam  more  than  its  two  rivals  bears  the  impress  of 
the  race  which  gave  it  birth,  it  did  not  confine  itself  to 
that  race  alone.     It  is  essentially  a  world-religion.     It 
overcame  the  national  religion  of  Persia,  which  was  the 
less  able  to  contend  with  it  on  account  of  the  people  of 
Western  Eran  having  been  for  a  long  time  subjected  to 
powerful  Semitic  influences.     In  the  east  and  middle  of 
Asia,  Mohammedanism  soon  became  a  formidable  rival  of 
Buddhism,  from  which  it  wrested  the  dominion  of  the 
Indian  Archipelago,  especially  of  Java.     It  also  contested 
the  supremacy  of  Buddhism  among  the   Tartars.     And 
while  it  thus   spread  irresistibly,  it  produced   converts 
among  all  manner  of  nations  and  races, — Arabians  and 
Syrians,  Egyptians  and  Berbers,  Gallas  and  Negroes.     It 
is   to  these    three   religions,   proceeding   from   the   new 
humanitarian  principle,  that  the  present  and  at  least  the 
more  immediate  future  belongs.     We  may  therefore  with 
perfect  propriety  name  them  the  new  religions.     Under 
the  name  of  old  religions,  on  the  other  hand,  I  understand 


INTRODUCTION.  xxiii 

all  the  others  which,  essentially  particularistic  in  their 
nature,  are  peculiar  to  a  special  tribe,  tribal  union,  or  people ; 
all  religions  which,  though  they  may  not  yet  have  all  died 
out, — the  majority  of  them  in  truth  still  survive, — and 
though  they  still  show  a  certain  vitality,  and  as  yet  have 
come  little  or  not  at  all  into  contact  with  the  new,  never- 
theless begin  to  yield  more  and  more  before  the  power  of 
the  world-religions. 


13oofe  3L 

HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 


"  O  Egypt,  Egypt,  of  thy  religion  there  will  be  left  remaining  nothing  but 
uncertain  tales,  which  will  be  believed  no  more  by  posterity,  words  graven 
on  stone  and  telling  of  thy  piety." — Hewncs  Trismegistus  .iEsculapius. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

CHAPTEE  I. 

NATIONALITY  OF  THE  INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY. 

The  cradle  of  civilisation,  the  spot  where  man  first  awoke 
to  self-conscious  and  reflective  life,  seems  -to  have  been 
the  valley  of  Sinear — the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris.  We  are,  however,  unacquainted  with  any  civilisa- 
tion more  ancient  than  that  of  Egypt.  Compared  with  this 
eldest-born  among  nations,  all  the  other  peoples  of  the 
world  whose  traditions  have  come  down  to  us  are  mere 
children.  The  reliable  history  of  Egypt,  authenticated 
by  monuments  of  the  highest  antiquity,  ascends  to  a  time 
when  all  the  other  races  were  still  sunk  in  barbarism,  or 
at  least  when  they  had  taken  scarcely  more  than  the  first 
steps  in  the  direction  of  a  higher  development. 

If  we  may  take  for  granted  that  Manetho  gives  the 
reigns  of  the  Egyptian  kings  accurately,  and  that  the 
dynasties  of  which  he  tells  us  are  for  the  most  part  con- 
secutive, then,  long  before  the  first  man,  according  to  the 
common  chronology  and  to  the  tradition  of  the  Hebrews, 
was  made  by  the  breath  of  God  a  living  soul,  Egypt 
already  stood  at  the  same  stage  of  development  in  in- 
dustry and  the  arts  at  which,  centuries  later,  it  was  found 
by  the  Persians  and  Greeks ;  or  rather,  what  is  said  to  have 
astonished  the  latter,  the  civilisation  they  found  was  only 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

the  fading  remnant  of  an  epoch  of  splendour,  the  com- 
mencement of  which  lay  far  back  in  grey  antiquity.    It  is, 
indeed,  the  case  that  to  all  appearance  the  Proto- Chaldeans 
preceded  the  Egyptians  in  civilisation  ;  but,  however  this 
may  be,  they  are  a  race  which  has  left  such  slight  traces 
in  the  annals  of  humanity  that  neither  its  history  nor  that 
of  its  religion  can  be  written.     It  is  not  till  after  the 
foundation  of  the  Semitic  empires  in  the  valley  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates  that  the  history  of  these  countries 
begins  to  be  based  on  contemporary  monuments.     We  are 
obliged  to  reconstruct  the  religion  of  their  ancient  inhabi- 
tants by  an  induction  from  that  of  their  conquerors.     The 
beo-inning  of  the  oldest  so-called  Semitic 1  or  rather  Meso- 
potamian   kingdom — that   is,  the   Chaldean — is   usually 
placed  in  the  twenty-first  century  B.C.,  and  the  oldest 
dynasty  of  the  Chinese  does  not  go  much  farther  back. 
In  the  opinion,  however,  of  most  Egyptologists,  the  greatest 
portion  of  Egyptian  history  had  then  been  already  enacted  : 
the  Old  and  Middle  Kingdoms  of  the  sons  of  Ham  had 
already  fallen,  Egypt  had  reached  its  point  of  culmination, 
and  its  most  nourishing  epoch  was  already  left  behind. 
The  religious  literature  of  the  Hebrews,  venerable  as  it  is 
for  its  antiquity,  does  not  begin  before  Moses;  but  we 
possess  a  MS.  from  Thebes  in  hieratic  characters,  written 
several  centuries  before  the   time   of  the  Hebrew  law- 
giver under  the  twelfth  Egyptian  dynasty,  and  the  author 
of  which  may  have  lived  at  a  time  considerably  earlier.2 
There  is  also  reason  to  suppose  that  certain  portions  of 
the  Egyptian  "  Book  of  the  Dead "  are  older  still.     We 

i  Instead  of  the  Semitic,  I  should  Chabas,    Le   plus  ancien  Livre  du 

prefer  to  speak  of  the  Mesopotamian  Monde;    E.   de  Rouge,  Exposé  de 

race  ;  but  to   prevent  confusion,    I  l'Etat    actuel    des    Etudes   egypti- 

retain  the  old  nomenclature.  ennes  (Progrès  des  Etudes  rel.  a  l'Eg. 

2  I  refer  to  the  papyrus  named  et  l'Orient,  Report  to  the  Minister 

after  Prisse.      It   contains  a  moral  of  Instruction  in  France,  1867),  p. 

disquisition  by  a  certain  king's  son,  55  ;   Brugsch,  Hist.  d'Eg. ,   i.   29  et 

Ptahhotep,  of  the  fifth  dynasty  (cir.  seq.     For  the  date  of  the  MS.  see 

3000  B.C.),   and   the  last   pages  of  Ebers,  Aeg.  u.  d.  BB.  Mos.  i.   147. 

another  moral  writing  in  the  days  of  The  MS.  is  in  the  Imperial  Library 

King  Snefru  (cir.  3600  B.C.)     Comp.  at  Paris. 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  5 

do  not  know  exactly  at  what  time  the  Vedas,  the  oldest 
existing  records  of  the  Aryan  race,  originated,  but  in  any 
case  their  date  cannot  be  earlier  than  two  thousand  years 
before  our  chronology ;  but  even  if  they  existed  so  early, 
they  are  still  centuries  more  recent  than  the  Egyptian  work 
we  named,  and  were  at  least  ten  centuries  later  of  beincr 
written  down.  A  relatively  moderate  calculation,  that 
of  Brugsch,  places  the  commencement  of  the  series  of 
indisputably  historical  kings  of  Egypt  in  the  forty-fifth 
century  B.C.  But  if  the  reigns  of  the  kings  as  given  by 
Manetho,  an  Egyptian  priest,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
Ptolemgeus  Soter,  and  wrote  the  ancient  history  of  his 
country,  are  added  up,  wTe  then  ascend  to  the  fifty-first 
century  B.C.,  or  somewhat  higher  still.  It  has  indeed  been 
suggested  that  the  royal  houses  named  by  him  were  not 
all  consecutive,  but  that  some  wTere  contemporary,  reigning 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  at  one  time,  and  therefore 
that  the  number  of  years  ascribed  by  him  to  such  dynasties 
should  be  deducted  from  the  sum-total.  Brugsch  likewise 
considers  the  ninth,  tenth,  fourteenth,  and  twenty-fifth 
dynasties  as  instances  of  those  contemporary  with  others ; 
while  Bunsen,  above  all,  has  carried  this  supposition  to 
excessive  lengths  in  the  construction  of  his  chronology. 
Nevertheless,  monuments  discovered  recently  tend  more 
and  more  to  confirm  the  accuracy  of  Manetho,  and  justify 
the  opinion  that  he  chronicled  the  reigns  of  those  only 
which  were  in  his  eyes  the  legitimate  ruling  houses,  and 
that  he  did  not  take  into  account  their  rivals,  whose  rule 
only  extended  over  portions  of  the  country.1     Be  that  as 

1  The  doubts  cast  by  Max  Duncker  kings  of  the  six  first  dynasties  oc- 
in  his  "  Geschichte  des  Alterthums,"  cm-ring  there  is  almost  equally  com- 
i.  12  et  seq.,  on  this  high  antiquity  plete  with  that  of  the  Sebennyte.  It 
of  the  Egyptian  state,  have  been  re-  contains  the  names  of  sixty-five 
moved  by  more  recent  investiga-  kings  anterior  to  Aahmes,  the  founder 
tions,  and  the  evidence,  growing  ever  of  the  new  empire,  and  seventy-five 
clearer,  of  the  monuments.  The  new  before  Seti  I.,  who  erected  the  mo- 
so-called  table  or  list  of  the  kings  nument.  And  that  it  contains  only 
at  Abydos,  discovered  by  Mariette,  a  selection  out  of  the  complete  list 
has  tended  to  strengthen  the  testi-  of  kings  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
mony  of  Manetho.     The  list  of  the  of   the    immediate   predecessors   of 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

it  may,  we  may  look  upon  it  as  extremely  probable  that 
Egyptian  history  begins  not  later,  and  perhaps  even  much 
earlier,  than  4000  B.C.  But  the  style  of  writing  on  the  monu- 
ments of  this  early  period  has  already  reached  such  perfec- 
tion and  settled  form,  and  the  pictures  in  the  tombs  of  the 
oldest  dynasties  betoken  a  civilisation  so  rich  and  so  firmly 
established  that  we  are  obliged  to  allow  many  centuries 
more  of  slow  preparation  and  growth  anterior  to  the  period 
of  which  the  historic  evidences  have  come  down  to  us. 
When  the  Egyptian  nation  enters  upon  the  scene  of  the 
world's  history  it  is  already  full  grown.  Like  Pallas  Athena 
from  the  head  of  Jupiter,  it  issues  from  the  night  of  past 
ages  fully  equipped  into  the  light.  The  brain  reels  in  con- 
fusion when  we  think  of  the  unreckoned  prehistoric  centu- 
ries in  which  its  early  childhood  and  youth  were  passed. 

To  what  race  and  to  what  nationality  does  this  people 
belong  which  thus  took  the  lead  of  all  other  peoples  of 
the  world  in  the  path  of  civilisation  ?  Some  would  have 
us  believe  that  it  belongs  to  the  Aryan  race,  others  that  it 

Seti's  father,  Ramses  I.,  i.e.,  of  the  curred  before  the  rude  conquerors 

thirteen   or   fourteen   kings  of   the  had  had  time  to  receive  the  civilisa- 

eighteenth  dynasty,  whose  existence  tion  of  the  Egyptians.    Accordingly, 

is  undoubtedly  proved  by  the  monu-  six  hundred  years  remain,  and  with- 

ments,  only  eight  are  named  in  the  in  these  six  centuries  the  reigns  of 

table  of  Abydos  ;  and  thus  not  only  the   earlier   Hyksos,  together  with 

the  four  considered  illegitimate  who  those  of  five  other  dynasties  vouched 

nevertheless  reigned,  but  also  one  or  for  by  the  monuments,  and  at  least 

two  others  distinctly  legitimate,  are  four  successors  of  Chufu,  must  be 

not  noticed.     C.  Piazzi  Smyth,  the  placed.      Now,  even  if  we  allow  for 

Scotch  astronomer,  goes  further  still,  an   instant  that   the  six   dynasties 

He  places  the  Great  Pyramid  in  the  mentioned   over   and   above   these, 

year  2429  B.C.,  in  this  agreeing  with  and  for  which  room  must  be  found 

Osburn.     If  the  years  of  the  date  of  in  this  period,  never  existed,  and  this 

Ramses  II. 's  reign,    which  cannot  is  possible,  since   they  left  behind 

havebeenmuch  earlierthan  1400B.C,  next  to  no  monuments,  we  should 

are  deducted  from  this,  there  remain  still  feel  the  impossibility  of  what 

about  a  thousand  years  betwixt  him  Piazzi  Smyth  asserts.     His  tactics, 

and  Chufu,  the  founder  of  this  pyra-  in   truth,    consist    in   ignoring   the 

mid.     On  an  inscription  at  Havaris,  most   powerful   arguments,   and   in 

Ramses  speaks  of  a  chronology  in-  the  repetition  of  dogmatic  utterances 

stitutedbyone  of  the  Shepherd  Kings  which  prove  nothing.    P.  S.,  On  the 

four  hundred  years  previously.    This  Antiquity  of  Intellectual  Man  from 

king  cannot  have  been  the  first  of  a  Practical  and  Astronomical  Point 

their  princes,  for  the  institution  of  of  View.     Edin.,  iSóS. 
a  chronology  can  scarcely  have  oc- 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  7 

is  to  be  considered  as  Semitic  (Mesopotamian).  It  pre- 
sents analogies,  important  traits  of  relationship  to  "both, 
and  is  also  distinguished  from  both  by  other  characteristics 
no  less  weighty.  If,  as  there  is  every  reason  to  believe, 
these  two  races  are  two  branches  of  a  primitive  stock, 
from  which  they  were  detached  long  before  historic  times, 
the  Egyptians,  whose  ancestors  certainly  came  from  Asia 
either  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  or  by  passing  across  the 
Eed  Sea,  may  be  the  representatives  of  this  anterior  race 
commingled  in  Africa  with  the  original  inhabitants  of  the 
Nile  Valley,  whose  own  character,  not  differing  from  that 
of  the  other  most  advanced  peoples  of  that  part  of  the 
world,  has  left  marked  traces  in  Egyptian  civilisation. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  however,  the  all  but  univer- 
sally accepted  opinion  was  that  the  Egyptians  should  be 
set  apart  as  a  race  different  from  both  Aryans  and  Meso- 
potamians.  Proceeding  upon  Gen.  x.  6,  scholars  spoke 
of  the  Hamitic  race  as  that  to  which,  besides  the  Egyptian, 
three  other  nations,  or  groups  of  nations  named  in  that 
passage,  belong.  I  can  only  look  on  the  Hamitic  race  as 
being  the  fruit  of  a  powerful  imagination  and  of  perverted 
exegesis.  It  was  long  ago  conjectured  that  the  division 
of  the  nations  known  to  the  Hebrews  into  sons  of  Ham, 
Shem,  and  Japheth,  does  not  rest  on  an  ethnographic  basis, 
but  on  one  of  a  very  different  nature :  in  other  words, 
that  the  passage  does  not  speak  of  three  races  which  we 
have  to  distinguish  from  each  other  in  speech  and  origin, 
but  that  here  it  sets,  side  by  side,  three  groups  of  peoples 
for  a  reason  other  than  that  of  language  and  descent. 
For  comparative  philology,  which  had  already  convinc- 
ingly proved  the  unity  of  the  Aryan  nations  from  their 
community  of  speech,  was  in  favour  neither  of  a  Semitic 
nor  of  a  Hamitic  race  according  to  the  division  of  Gen.  x. 
There  the  Canaanites  are  counted  as  sons  of  Ham,  and 
it  is  certain  that  all  the  Canaanite  nations,  including  the 
Phoenicians,  spoke  a  language  closely  related  to  Hebrew ; 
yet,  in  spite. of  this,  the  Hebrews  are  reckoned  as  sons  of 


8  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Shem.  The  same  thing  holds,  though  in  a  less  degree,  of 
the  sons  of  Phut  and  of  Cush,  who  are  counted,  in  Gen. 
x.  6,  among  the  sons  of  Ham.  Both  of  these  are,  by 
descent  and  language,  much  more  closely  related  to  the 
Arabians,  Syrians,  and  Hebrews  than  to  the  Egyptians 
proper.  The  mode  in  which  some  have  thought  to  vindi- 
cate, not  the  accuracy  of  the  author,  but  the  traditional 
exegesis  of  Gen.  x.,  is  one  of  the  astonishing  feats  by 
which  the  advocates  of  a  lost  cause  usually  try  to  save 
themselves.  The  Canaanites,  though  belon<rincj  to  the 
sons  of  Ham,  are  supposed,  at  their  immigration  into 
Canaan,  to  have  there  fallen  in  with  certain  Semitic  tribes 
whose  language  and  religion  they,  in  one  word,  adopted 
as  their  own. 1  The  unreasonableness  of  this  hypothesis 
is  too  great  for  it  to  find  any  support  from  an  unbiassed 
investigator,  and  it  really  is  not  deserving  of  serious 
refutation.  More  thorough  and  scientific  students  have 
therefore  adopted  the  opinion  that  the  division  of  the 
nations  in  the  chapter  so  often  referred  to  is  founded  on 
a  geographical  basis.  By  Ham,  Shem,  and  Japheth  the 
ancient  author  is  supposed  to  indicate,  not  three  races, 
but  three  regions  or  zones ;  so  that  Ham  was  to  him  the 
representative  of  the  south,  Japheth  of  the  north,  and 
Shem  of  the  middle  of  the  world  which  was  within  his 
view. 2  Attractive  as  this  notion  is,  I  cannot  entertain  it. 
It  fails  also  to  remove  all  the  difficulties.  The  sons  of 
Japheth  named  in  Gen.  x.  dwell  indeed  mostly  in  the 
north,  but  the  sons  of  Ham  are  not  always  to  be  sought 
more  to  the  south  than  those  of  Shem.  The  Canaanites 
dwelt  more  to  the  north  than  the  Arabians  and  Baby- 
lonians ;  and  though  they  all  came  from  the  south-east, 
the  Hebrews  and  other  Semitic  tribes  came  also  originally 

1  So,    along  with  others,    Lenor-  Christian  duty  constantly  to  wrest 

mant,  following  Munk,  in  his  "  Ma-  history   into   accordance   with    the 

nuel  d'Histoire  ancienne  de  l'Ori-  tradition  of  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
ent,"  ii.  246,  a  work  that  would  be         2  Thus,    among    others,    Renan, 

much  more  worthy  of  praise  if  the  Hist,  génér.  et  systéme  compare  d. 

author  did  not  look  upon  it  as  a  Langues  sémiticuies,  2d  ed.,  p.  40. 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE   VALLEY.  9 

from  that  quarter.  Phut  the  son  of  Ham  is  to  be  sought 
for  more  to  the  north  than  Joktan  the  son  of  Shem ; 
and  so  this  explanation  also  is  unsatisfactory. 

But,  in  my  opinion,  we  need  no  longer  remain  in  uncer- 
tainty as  to  what  the  Hebrew  author  meant  with  his 
division  into  sons  of  Ham,  Shem,  and  Japheth.  His 
meaning  at  once  appears  when  we  look  at  the  nations  to 
whom  Ham  is  allotted  as  their  first  ancestor.  In  Ham, 
like  all  the  other  tribal  fathers,  a  mythical  personage, 
the  black  land  of  Egypt  itself  was  long  since  recognised. 
Kem,  or  Kam,  was  the  name  given  to  their  native  land 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile  valley  themselves.1  There 
are  next  enumerated  as  his  sons,  Cush,  which  is  the  name 
given  on  Egyptian  monuments  to  the  Ethiopian  nation  to 
the  south  of  Egypt  proper,  which  in  historic  times  migrated 
thither  from  the  east  from  Mesopotamia,  where  the  stock 
from  which  it  was  an  offshoot  still  remained  behind.  Next 
comes  Mizraim,  the  common  Hebrew  name  for  the  king- 
dom of  the  Pharaohs,  especially  for  Middle  or  Lower 
Egypt,  a  name  the  dual  form  of  which2  excites  no 
surprise,  whether  we  consider  it  as  derived  from  the  two 
great  divisons  of  the  country,  or.  find  that  it  signifies  the 
two  enclosures,  and  a^ree  with  Knobel  in  thinking  that 
these  are  the  two  mountain  chains  that  border  the  Nile 
valley,  or  with  Ebers,  that  they  are  the  double  walls 
which,  according  to  the  most  ancient  monuments,  pro- 
tected Egypt  against  the  inroads  of  barbarians.3  Phut,  or 
Punt  as  it  is  called  on  the  Egyptian  monuments,  is  a  country 
with  which  the  Egyptians  were  in  many  ways  closely  con- 
nected, but  the  signification  of  this  name  is  somewhat  un- 
certain :  it  either  denotes  an  African  tribe,  or  it  refers  to 

1  See  Brugsch,  Hieroglyphisch-  are  found  in  existence  distinguished 
demotisches  Worterbuch,  p.  145 1,  as  the  northern  and  southern  wall ; 
voce  Kem.  the  former  was  dedicated  to  Neith, 

2  Mizraim,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  the  latter  to  Ptah.  Comp.  De  Rouge, 
dual  form.  Monuments  des  VI.  premières  Dy- 

3  See  Ebers,  op.  cit.,  p.  86.     Even  nasties,  p.  97. 
under  the  oldest  dynasties  two  walls 


io  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

that  part  of  Arabia  which  was  under  the  rule  of  the 
Egyptians,  or  where  at  least  they  held  some  posts  in 
military  occupation.  The  fourth  son  is  Canaan,  at  that 
time  the  region  occupied  by  the  Phoenician  peoples.  Now, 
to  any  one  familiar  with  Egyptian  history,  it  is  very 
evident  why  these  nations  in  particular  are  called,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  others,  the  sons  of  Ham.  Mizraim  is  not 
indeed  the  son  first  named,  because  the  author  appears  to 
travel  in  his  enumeration  from  south  to  north,  but  there 
is  no  need  to  prove  that  he  has  full  right  to  the  name  of 
a  son  of  the  black  earth.  The  Cushites,  or  Ethiopians,  were 
for  a  considerable  time  tributary  to  Egypt,  and  so  were  the 
Punt.  Canaan  also  was  for  a  long  time  under  Egyptian 
dominion,  and  the  Canaanites  owed  all  their  civilisation 
to  Egypt,  while,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  Phoenicians 
inhabited  the  north  coast  of  the  Delta,  and  even  in  Mem- 
phis had  a  special  quarter  of  the  town  set  apart  for  them- 
selves. The  sons  of  Ham,  sons,  that  is,  of  the  black 
Kile  valley,  are  thus  simply  the  Egyptians  and  the  nations 
subdued  and  civilised  by  them.  The  division  into  three 
national  groups,  by  the  author  of  Gen.  x.,  is  neither  ethno- 
graphic nor  geographic,  but — if  I  may  be  allowed  the  word 
— historico-social  (cultuur-historisch).  The  sons  of  Ham 
represent  the  most  ancient  and  to  the  Hebrews  an  offen- 
sive civilisation :  the  sons  of  Shem  that  next  in  succession 
which,  though  quickened  and  raised  up  under  Egyptian 
influence,  was  yet  a  development  much  more  independent 
and  original  than  that  of  the  peoples  directly  subject  to 
Egypt.  The  central  point  of  this  civilisation  is  found  in 
the  Assyrian  empire.  Assur  is  named  among  the  sons  of 
Shem.  All  the  other  nations  known  to  the  ancient 
Hebrews,  though  they  belonged  to  different  races — Aryan 
or  Turanian — were  included  under  Japheth,  and  he  is 
called  the  eldest  son,  either  as  bein^  the  greatest,  the  one 
whose  territory  was  most  extensive,  or,  and  this  is  more 
likely,  as  being  the  one  who  had  longest  retained  the 
primitive  state  of  culture,  and  remained  still  at  a  stage  of 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE   VALLEY.  n 

development  long  since  left  behind  by  the  Hamitic  and 
Semitic  races.  Into  this  question,  however,  I  cannot  now 
enter  farther.  For  my  purpose  it  is  enough  to  have  proved 
that  the  sons  of  Ham  in   Gen.  x.  can  teach  us  nothing 

o 

about  the  origin  of  the  Egyptian  people.  This  result, 
though  negative,  is  at  least  in  one  respect  valuable,  for  it 
removes  an  erroneous  idea,  which  hampered  investigations 
likely  to  be  fruitful. 

Accordingly,  the  question — To  what  race  do  the  Egyp- 
tians belong? — remains  open.  The  task  of  answering  it 
must  be  left  to  comparative  philology.  Attempts  in  this 
direction  have  already  been  made.  Benfey  has  tried  to 
prove  that  the  ordinary  so-called  Semitic  languages  are 
nothing  but  one  of  two  branches  of  a  family  of  languages, 
the  other  branch  of  which  must  be  looked  for  across  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez,  and  which,  along  with  the  Egyptian,  em- 
braces all  the  languages  of  North  Africa,  to  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  He  has  been  followed  in  this  by  others,  as 
Ernst  Meier,  and  Paul  Bötticher — (De  Lagarde).  Bunsen 
adopted  the  same  view  in  a  somewhat  modified  form. 
According  to  him,  the  Egyptians  were  an  early  offshoot 
from  the  Caucasian  race,  at  a  time  when  the  Semitic  and 
Aryan  elements  had  not  yet  definitely  separated  from 
each  other.  In  this  way  the  points  of  agreement  between 
the  ancient  Egyptian  and  both  these  branches  of  language, 
may,  Bunsen  thinks,  be  best  explained.1 

This  idea  is  not  unfamiliar  to  other  Egyptologists  as 
well.  Besides  De  Bougé,  who  has  only  cursorily  glanced 
at  this  subject,  Brugsch  and  Ebers  have  laid  great  stress 
upon  the  close  relationship  between  the  ancient  Egyptian 
and  the  Mesopotamian  (Semitic)  languages.     The  former 


1  See  Renan,  Langues  Sémitïques,  Semitic.      More  recent  discoveries*, 

2d  ed.,  p.  So  et  seq.      Renan  him-  both  in  Mesopotamia  and  in  Egypt, 

self,  as  is  well  known,  is  in  favour  and  a  closer  study  of  the  idioms  of 

of    limiting  the    Semitic   group   of  both   countries,   have   deprived   his 

languages  to  the  narrowest  possible  arguments   of  much  of  their  force, 

bounds,  even  refusing  to  allow  that  He   has   himself   made   concessions 

the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  are  recently  on  this  point. 


12  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

considers  it  as  almost  certain  that  the  Egyptian  tongue 
has  its  root  in  the  Semitic,  and  regards  it  as  a  fact  which 
new  investigations  will  more  and  more  confirm,  that  this 
and  all  Semitic  languages  are  the  offspring  of  a  common 
mother,  whose  original  seat  is  to  be  sought  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates  or  the  Tigris.1  The  latter  does  not 
hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  Egyptians  are  a  Semitic,  ap- 
parently Chaldean,  stock,  the  cause  of  whose  wide  differ- 
ence from  their  Eastern  brethren  is,  that  they  adopted  from 
the  original  inhabitants  of  the  land  in  which  they  settled 
not  a  little  both  of  their  language  and  their  customs.2  In 
spite  of  the  determined  opposition  that  Benfey's  opinion 
at  first  encountered  from  various  quarters,  and  notwith- 
standing that  his  opinions  were  opposed  on  the  one  side 
by  the  Hebraist  Ewald,  and  on  the  other  by  the  Aryolo- 
gist  Pott,  Egyptologists  appear  more  and  more  inclined  to 
adopt  the  results  of  the  Göttingen  linguist.  The  question 
is  not  yet  ripe  for  decision.  One  thing  is  certain,  that 
the  Egyptians  belong  originally  to  Asia,  and  are  closely 
related  to  that  great  race,  which  includes  the  Aryans  as 
well  as  the  Mesopotamians.  They  must  have  migrated 
into  Egypt  long  before  the  beginning  of  history,  either  by 
way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  or  across  the  Eed  Sea,  and 
established  themselves  in  the  country  between  the  Delta 
and  the  Cataracts.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  Western 
Asia  always  continued  to  be  called  among  them,  the  holy 
land,  the  land  of  the  gods,  Ta  Nuter.  They  are  undoubt- 
edly not  a  pure  Aryan  people,  though  some  superficial 
investigators  of  history  have  set  this  down  without  much 
reflection.  The  points  in  which  their  customs  and  speech 
coincide  with  the  so-called  Semitic  civilisation  and  lan- 
guage are  far  more  numerous   and  important  than  the 

1  Brugsch,  Wörterbuch,  Einl.  ix.  that  he  will  by-and-by  be  able  to 

2  Ebers,  Aeg.  u.  BB.  Mos.  i.  45.  support  his  opinion  more  completely. 
Ebers  declares  that  he  has  more  In  any  case,  there  is  no  lack  of 
than  three  hundred  examples  of  Aryan  roots  in  the  Egyptian,  and 
words  which,  he  alleges,  are  derived  some  of  them  express  very  important 
from  Semitic  roots,  and  he  believes  ideas. 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  13 

points  of  agreement  between  them  and  the  Aryans.  Since, 
however,  sufficient  light  has  not  yet  been  thrown  on  this 
subject,  and  we  do  not  wish  to  assert  more  than  is  really 
ascertained,  I  shall  not  as  yet  rank  the  Egyptian  among 
the  Semitic  peoples,  and  I  shall,  on  account  of  the  many 
peculiarities  of  their  religion,  treat  of  it  separately. 

The  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  moreover,  comprised  diverse 
elements.  The  name  Egypt,  given  to  the  country  by  the 
Greeks,  and,  according  to  Brugsch,  derived  from  Ha-Ka- 
Ptah,  i.e.,  house  of  the  worship  of  Ptah,  or,  according  to 
Ebers,  from  Ai-Kaft,  i.e.,  the  coast  country  Kaft,  or  the 
curved  coast,1  was  not  a  native  word.  They  themselves, 
as  we  have  seen,  called  their  land  Kem,  the  black,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  red  clayey  soil  of  Libya  and 
Syria,  and  they  honoured  the  kernel  of  the  population, 
the  inhabitants  of  pure  blood,  under  the  name  of  Eetu  or 
Eutu,  the  men,  which  coincides  with  the  Ludim  of  Gen. 
x.  1 3,  who  are  there  designated  as  the  first  sons  of  Mizraim.2 
To  esteem  themselves  as  the  men  par  excellence,  is  so  en- 
tirely in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  antiquity,  and  is  still 
so  common 3  with  many  primitive  natrons,  that  we  cannot 
look  upon  this  as  extraordinary.  These  Eetu  appear  to 
have  been  the  ruling  class,  the  natural  aristocracy.  But 
other  tribes  had  also  settled  on  the  black  earth.  To  these 
belong  the  Aamu  or  Amu,  who  have  been  compared  with 
the  Anamim  of  Gen.  x.  1 3.4     They  were  certain  Arabian 

1  Brugsch,  Histoire,  p.  6  et  seq. ;  Anamim  the  Amu  with  the  Egyp- 
Ebers,  Aeg.  u.  BB.  Mos.  133  et  seq.  tian   word   An  =  nomad,   prefixed  : 

2  Ebers.  op.  cit.,  p.  91  ;  De  Rouge,  an-amu,  i.e.,  nomadic  Arabs  to  be 
Mon.  d.  VI.  premières  Dynasties,  p.  carefully  distinguished  from  anu- 
6.  Since  the  Egyptians,  as  well  as  kens,  i.e.,  the  Nubian  nomads  who 
the  old  Iranians,  had  no  L,  and  as  belong  to  another  people.  The  con- 
the  D  could  only  be  expressed  by  jecture  of  Ebers  has  certainly  more 
them  by  the  combination  (NT),  Lud  in  its  favour  than  that  of  De  Rouge, 
is  the  simple  Hebrew  transcript  of  "  Mon.  d.  VI.  prem.  Dynasties,"  p. 
Rut.  The  final  U  is  the  termination  6  et  seq.,  who  sees  in  the  Anamim 
of  the  plural,  corresponding  to  the  simply  Anu,  i.e.,  nomads,  and  the 
Hebrew  IM.  name  of  these  nomads  is  brought  by 

3  Comp.  Waitz,  Anthropologic  him  into  connection  with  the  names 
der  Naturvölker,  iii.  36,  303.  of  towns,   Heliopolis,  Dendera,  and 

4  Ebers,  op.  cit.,  p.  101,  sees  in  the  Hermonthis,  that  are  all  called  An 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

pastoral  tribes,  who,  with  the  consent  of  the  government, 
settled  in  Egypt  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty. 
Their  chief  places  of  abode  were  in  the  Sinaitic  penin- 
sula, on  the  Bucolic  Nile  branch,  and  in  Middle  Egypt 
between  the  Arabian  mountain-range  and  the  Eed  Sea. 
They  appear,  however,  never  to  have  mixed  with  the 
Egyptians.  The  Casluhim,  out  of  whom,  according  to 
Gen.  x.  14,  came  Philistim,  seem  to  have  lived  more  to  the 
north,  in  that  land  of  scorched  mountains  which  extends 
from  the  east  of  the  Delta  to  the  boundaries  of  Palestine, 
and  which  was  subject  to  Egypt.  In  the  west  are  found 
the  Libyans,  the  Lehabim,  or  Lubu  (properly  Eebu)  of  the 
Egyptian  inscriptions.  They  are  a  northern  tribe  of  the 
people  called  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  Tehennu  or  Temhu, 
and  their  country  was  on  the  eastern  border.  This  people 
not  unfrequently  made  inroads  on  Egyptian  territory,  and 
their  descendants  survive  still  in  the  Tuaregs,  who  prefer 
to  call  themselves  Imoshagh,  in  the  neuter  Tema-shight,  a 
word  that  recalls  the  old  name  Temhu.1  The  coast  between 
the  Libyan  territory  and  that  of  the  eastern  Semitic  tribes 
appears  to  have  been  early  inhabited  and  taken  possession 
of  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  they,  perhaps,  are  the  Caphtorim 
of  Gen.  x.  14,  a  name  which  was  formerly  supposed  to 
indicate  the  Cretans.2     It  is,  at  all  events,  certain  that 


in  the  old  Egyptian.  He  thinks  that  the  so-called  Semites.  That  he  draws 
these  towns  may  originally  have  thence  some  rash  inferences,  and 
been  colonies  of  these  people.  But  once  or  twice  proves  too  much,  is  to 
An  in  the  name  of  these  towns  has  be  expected,  as  he  is  trying  to  sup- 
certainly  nothing  to  do  with  nomads,  port  a  happy  conjecture  in  every 
and  is  undoubtedly  derived  from  an  possible  way.  This  lucky  guess  is 
=  stone  or  pillar.  the  explanation  of  the  Hebrew  Caph- 

1  See  Barth,  Discoveries  and  Tra-  thor  by  Kaft-ur,  "  great  Phoenicia," 
vels,  i.  195  tt  seq.  One  of  their  literally  "great  curved  (coast)  land;" 
gods  is  Amun,  who  thus  bears  the  for  Kaft  is  the  (later)  Egyptian  name 
same  name  as  the  chief  god  of  Thebes  for  Phoenicia.  We  grant  him  will- 
and  of  the  Libyan  Oasis.  ingly  the  rapid  Bpread  of'  this  busy 

2  This  question  has  been  very  fully  people  through  the  north  of  Egypt, 
gone  into  by  Ebers,  Aeg.  u.  BB.  and  acknowledge  that  of  this  fact  he 
Mos.  i.  127-252.  Most  interesting  has  collected  various  fresh  proofs, 
of  all  are  the  evidences  adduced  by  But,  what  he  certainly  has  not 
him  of  the  immense  influence  exer-  proved  is,  that  the  Phoenicians  were 
cised  in  Egypt  in  very  early  times  by  already  settled  in  Egypt  before  the 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  15 

they  had  no  sooner  set  foot  in  Egypt  than  they  tried  to 
penetrate  farther  and  farther  into  it,  and  exercised  con- 
siderable influence  on  the  culture  and  even  on  the  religion 
of  the  north  of  Egypt,  not  excepting  Memphis.  This  in- 
fluence is  not,  however,  perceptible  till  under  the  new 
kingdom  after  the  time  of  Hyksos,  and  cannot  have  been 
great  before  the  invasion  of  the  latter,  even  though  we 
were  obliged  to  allow  that,  at  that  time,  the  Phoenicians 
already  inhabited  the  north  coast  of  the  Delta. 

"With  such  a  distribution  of  population  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  north  and  south  of  the  country, 
though  mostly  always  united  under  one  sceptre,  were  yet 
clearly  distinguished  from  each  other,  and  that  not  only 
did  each  of  them  exhibit  a  sharply  marked  character  of  its 
own,  but  they  were  also  constantly  in  conflict  as  rivals  for 
supremacy.  Only  by  keeping  this  in  mind  is  it  possible 
rightly  to  understand  the  history  of  Egypt.  In  religious 
ideas,  in  dialect,  and  in  customs,  Lower  and  Upper  Egypt 
were  essentially  different.  The  author  of  Gen.  x.  has  not 
overlooked  this ;  but  according  to  his  mode  of  regarding 
the  two  divisions  of  the  land,  they  are  two  sons  of  Miz- 
raim,  that  is,  two  different  tribes,  the  Naphthuchini  and 
the  Pathrusim.  The  former  are  the  Na-ptah  (pronounced 
in  the  Memphitic  dialect  phtah),  that  is,  "  those  of  Ptah," 
the  worshippers  of  the  god  of  Memphis,  the  capital  of 


time  of  the  Hyksos,  though  he  re-  Palestine,  but  this,  too,  requires 
peatedly  assures  us  that  this  was  the  more  distinct  proof.  Equally  hazard- 
case.  Not  only  is  that  unlikely  in  ous  seems  to  me  the  hypothesis  of 
itself,  but,  from  the  account  of  an  Ebers,  p.  143,  that  the  town  of 
officer  who,  in  the  reign  of  Amen-  Koptos,  in  tipper  Egypt,  derived 
emha  I.  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  (that  its  name  from  the  Phoenicians,  and 
of  the  Hyksos  is  the  seventeenth),  was  inhabited  chiefly  by  them,  unless 
was  sent  to  Edom  and  a  district  of  we  accept  the  supposition  that  they 
Palestine,  it  appears  that  at  that  migrated  thither  from  the  shores  of 
time  no  trace  of  Canaanites  was  the  Red  Sea,  which  was  their  first 
found  in  that  region  (Chabas).  It  is  abode.  We  shall  afterwards  have 
true  that,  if  with  Ebers  we  make  an  opportunity  of  considering  the 
Abraham's  visit  to  Egypt  fall  so  Phoenician  elements  in  the  Egyptian 
early  as  under  the  twelfth  dynasty,  religion,  which,  according  to  Ebers, 
then  we  must  allow  that  the  Canaan-  p.  237  et  seq.}  must  have  been  very 
ites   already  lived  at   that  time  in  important. 


i6  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Lower  Egypt.  The  latter  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  south 
country  P-ta-res,  or,  according  to  Ebers,1  Pathyr(Pe-hat- 
har)res,  the  southerly  Pathyr,  the  nomos  sacred  to  Hathor. 
The  pure  Egyptian  element  was  always  more  represented 
by  the  South.  The  North  was  overrun  by  foreigners  who 
were  with  difficulty  kept  in  restraint  by  the  ruling  power 
at  Memphis.  The  whole  history  of  Egypt  is  a  struggle 
of  Egyptian  nationality  against  the  ever  more  and  more 
successful  encroachments  of  Semitic  or  Mesopotamian 
intruders  who  pushed  their  way,  for  the  most  part  by  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez,  or  by  the  north  coast,  through  to  the  fat 
land  which  they  coveted.  At  first,  the  cultivated  and 
powerful  South  makes  its  supremacy  felt  by  the  rude 
North.  Menes  unites  both  divisions  under  his  sceptre, 
and  founds  Memphis  with  the  evident  design  of  keeping 
the  whole  of  Lower  Egypt  in  check  by  means  of  this  for- 
tress. This  was  successfully  done.  During  a  period  of 
many  centuries  six  pure  Egyptian  dynasties  ruled  over  the 
whole  country  from  their  seat  in  Memphis.  Then  comes 
a  period  of  turmoil  and  confusion.  A  Lower  Egyptian 
dynasty,  proceeding  from  Herakleopolis,2  managed  to 
acquire  the  sovereignty  at  least  of  the  north,  and  was 
followed  by  a  second,  also  belonging  to  Herakleopolis. 
Meanwhile,  in  Upper  Egypt  a  royal  family,  which  sprang 
from  the  Theban  nomos,  had  established  itself  as  an  inde- 


1  Ebers,  op.  cit.,  i.  115  et  scq.  if  with  Mariette  we  make  the  He- 

2  It  is  uncertain  which  Herakleo-  rakleopolitan  reigns  not  contempor- 
polis  is  referred  to  here.  There  were  ary  but  in  immediate  succession  to 
three  towns  of  the  name  all  in  Lower  the  last  Memphitic  dynasty.  Should 
Egypt:  one,  Herakleopolis  Magna,  Mariette' s  opinion  turn  out  to  be 
to  the  south  of  Memphis  ;  another,  unassailable,  I  would  in  that  case 
Herakleopolis  Parva,  on  the  most  seek  the  ninth  and  tenth  dynasty  in 
easterly  branch  of  the  Nile,  in  the  Herakleopolis  Magna.  The  other 
Sethroitic  nomos ;  and  a  third  on  two  places  were  too  insignificant, 
the  most  westerly  branch.  Lepsius,  and  the  extreme  north  had  assuredly 
and  along  with  him  Ebers,  exclude  not  obtained  at  that  early  period 
the  first,  on  the  ground  that  a  royal  such  influence  as  to  make  it  probable 
family,  whose  seat  was  so  close  to  that  a  line  of  sovereigns  which  ruled 
Memphis,  could  not  have  reigned  over  a  great  part  of  the  country 
simultaneously  with  a  Memphitic  should  have  come  at  that  time  out 
dynasty.    This  difficulty  is  removed,  of  one  of  these  border  towns. 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  17 

pendent  power,  and  was  successful,  if  not  in  the  first 
dynasty  that  reigned,  at  least  in  that  which  followed,  the 
twelfth,  in  bringing  the  whole  kingdom  once  more  under 
its  own  purely  Egyptian  sovereignty,  and  in  raising  it 
to  the  most  flourishing  condition  in  arts  and  civilisation. 
While  the  dynasties  that  had  Memphis  for  their  seat  are 
usually  designated  as  the  Old  Kingdom,  this  first  Theban 
supremacy  is  best  indicated  by  the  name  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom. 

But  this  brilliant  epoch  having  now  passed  away,  the 
power  of  the  South  declines,  and  again  the  North  raises 
its  head.  It  shakes  off  the  yoke  of  the  Theban  power, 
and  pays  homage  to  a  dynasty  established  at  Xoi's  in  the 
Delta.  This  was,  however,  only  the  prelude  to  still 
greater  humiliations  in  store  for  Egypt.  Eoreign  hordes 
from  Arabia  bring  into  subjection  the  whole  of  Lower 
Egypt  by  means  of  the  sword,  and  compel  Upper  Egypt 
to  pay  them  tribute,  and  for  four  centuries  the  domination 
of  the  Hyksos  or  Shepherd  Kings  presses  heavily  upon 
the  land. 

Once  again  emancipation  comes  from  the  South.  The 
Arabian  kings,  who  had  gradually  adopted  the  civilisation 
of  Egypt,  lost,  it  would  seem  as  they  did  so,  their  ferocity, 
and  apparently  at  the  same  time  their  old  energy  as  well. 
The  tributary  Theban  princes  venture  to  throw  off  the 
yoke.  Aahmes,  after  a  long  struggle,  is  successful  in 
expelling  them,  and  unites  all  Egypt  under  his  rule. 
With  him  begins  the  New  Kingdom,  and  the  third 
flourishing  epoch  of  Egyptian  civilisation.  Under  three 
successive  royal  families,  the  Thutmeses  and  Amenhoteps, 
the  Setis  and  Eamesids,  Thebes  continued,  except  for  a 
time  once  and  again,  to  be  the  chief  seat  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  Pharaohs,  which  extends  once  more  to  its  ancient 
confines,  and  inspires  the  whole  of  Western  Asia  with 
respect. 

With  the  eleventh  century,  however,  the  balance  in- 
clines once  again  over  to  the  side  of  the  North.     The  high 


iS  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

priests  of  Amun  at  Thebes  set  upon  their  heads  the  double 
crown ;  but  various  dynasties  from  the  Delta  contest  with 
them  the  supremacy,  and  they  are  at  last  compelled  to  retire 
into  Ethiopia,  where  they  establish  an  independent  king- 
dom. But  not  even  then  do  they,  the  last  representatives 
of  the  ancient  true  Egyptian  power,  abandon  the  hope  of 
one  day  bringing  the  whole  country  again  into  subjection 
to  themselves.  So  soon  as  the  North  begins  to  show  signs 
of  decline,  or  becomes  divided,  they  hasten  to  the  spot, 
obtain  easily  possession  of  Thebes  and  its  territory,  and 
also,  after  a  powerful  resistance,  become  masters  of  Mem- 
phis. But  not  for  long.  After  a  brief  supremacy,  they 
again  disappear  from  the  scene,  driven  back  into  the  land 
of  Kush.  And  now  Tanis,  Bubastis,  Sais,  all  northern 
towns,  give  Egypt  its  kings  ;  and  it  is  a  matter  for  congra- 
tulation when  it  is  only  native  princes  who  fight  with  each 
other  for  supremacy,  and  not  Assyrian  conquerors  like 
Esarhaddon  and  Assur-bani-pal,  who  come,  and  by  total 
subjugation  and  dismemberment  of  the  country,  take  their 
revenge  for  the  hostilities  carried  on  by  Egyptian  princes 
against  their  fathers.  The  glory  of  Ham  has  passed  away, 
the  day  of  Shem  has  come.  Nevertheless,  these  princes, 
though  not  of  pure  extraction  and  of  mixed  race,  adopted 
the  traditions  and  customs  of  the  ancient  Pharaohs, 
and  the  Egyptian  civilisation,  which,  under  one  of  them, 
Amasis,  even  attains  a  certain  brilliance.  But  it  is 
only  the  flicker  of  the  light  before  it  expires.  Persian 
conquerors  add  Egypt  to  their  vast  dominion,  and  then, 
after  it  had  for  about  half  a  century  enjoyed  a  certain 
degree  of  independence,  Greeks  and  Eomans  take  the 
place  of  the  Persians.  With  the  arrival  of  the  Greeks,  my 
history  of  the  Egyptian  religion  ends.  It  is  indeed  the 
case  that,  under  the  Ptolemys,  who  did  not  suppress  but 
rather  honoured  the  Egyptian  nationality,  the  Egyptian 
religion  was  freely  exercised.  Indeed  at  a  later  period 
magnificent  temples  were  rebuilt  or  founded  at  their 
expense  and  at  that  of  the  Eoman  emperors,  yet  this  was 


INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NILE  VALLEY.  19 

nothing  more  than  an  artificial  revival  of  a  past  from 
which  all  life  had  fled.  The  period  of  the  Ptolemys  does 
not  properly  belong  to  the  history  of  the  ancient  religion  ; 
bnt  it  is  especially  important  as  part  of  the  preparatory 
history  of  the  new  religion,  which  indeed  arose  in  Galilee, 
but  the  first  moulding  of  which  was  greatly  influenced 
both  by  the  Greek  philosophy  of  Alexandria  and  by  the 
ancient  religion  of  Egypt. 


(      20      ) 


CHAPTEE  II. 

THE   SACEED  LITEEATUEE. 

Only  fifty  years  ago  nearly  all  that  could  be  known  about 
the  religion  of  the  Egyptians  had  to  be  sought  from  Greek 
sources.  Besides  the  little  that  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
tells  us  incidentally  about  their  sacred  literature  in  the 
fifth  and  sixth  book  of  his  Stromata}  nothing  more  was 
known  on  the  subject  than  what  Herodotus,  Diodorus, 
and  especially  Plutarch,  communicate.  If  to  this  we  add 
the  few  fragments  of  Manetho's  work  in  Josephus  and 
Georgios  Synkellos,  and  what  has  been  preserved  under 
the  form  of  history  in  a  single  scholiast,2  we  have  summed 
up  all  the  sources  from  which  formerly  a  dim  conception 
could  be  formed  of  the  religious  worship  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Nile  valley.  And  even,  supposing  that  the  accuracy 
of  all  these  sources  of  information  was  to  be  relied  on, 
their  accounts,  with  the  exception  of  Plutarch's,  are  very 
scanty,  and,  considering  the  antiquity  of  Egyptian  civilisa- 
tion, also  very  recent.  Herodotus  allows  the  priests  to  tell 
him  whatever  tales  they  choose.  Plutarch  reproduces  the 
myth  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  with  on  the  whole  remarkable 
faithfulness,  but  he  gives  it  in  the  form  that  was  most 
acceptable  to  himself :  he  had  no  conception  of  the  thought 
originally  expressed  by  it.  Moreover,  the  Greeks  were 
accustomed  to  hellenise  everything  and  to  transfer  the 
names  of  their  Olympians  to  foreign  gods,  a  custom  which 

1  Stromat.,    lib.  v.   p.    237    (Pott.  ii.  657),  and  lib.  vi.  p.   268  et  seq. 
(Pott.   756),  inBunsen,  Aegyptens  Stelle,  III.  Urkundenbuch,  p.  91. 

2  See  Bunsen,  op.  cit.,  esp.   pp.  58,  7 1. 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  21 

hindered  them  from  properly  understanding  the  nature  of 
a  foreign  religion.  How  slight,  for  example,  is  the  resem- 
blance between  Ptah  and  Hephaistos,  Chonsu  and  Herakles, 
Horos  and  Apollo,  or  between  Neith,  the  mother  of  the 
gods,  and  the  virgin  Athena  !  A  knowledge  of  the  Egyptian 
religion  obtained  under  such  conditions  must  of  necessity 
have  been  inexact  and  superficial,  and  anything  approach- 
ing to  a  history  of  the  religion  could  not  be  looked  for. 

The  invaluable  discovery  by  which  the  name  of  Cham- 
pollion  the  younger  has  been  immortalised  put  an  end 
to  this  uncertainty.  He  found  the  key  to  the  hierogly- 
phics, that  ingenious  though  cumbrous  mode  of  writing 
which  was  in  common  use  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  first 
dynasties — a  key  which  the  Greeks  and  Ebmans  might 
so  easily  have  preserved  for  the  use  of  posterity,  but 
which,  in  their  indifference  to  everything  that  appeared  to 
them  barbarous,  they  allowed  to  be  lost.  Thus,  at  last, 
the  scholarship  of  Europe  gained  access  to  a  literature 
which  may  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  richest  in  the  world. 

For  it  would  seem  as  if  the  Egyptians,  proud  of  pos- 
sessing this  instrument  to  immortalise  their  thoughts  and 
great  deeds,  left  no  opportunity  of  employing  it  unused. 
Books  were  not  sufficient  for  them,  the  temples  and 
palaces,  the  tombs  and  obelisks,  common  utensils  or 
decorative  objects,  were  all  covered  over  with  inscriptions. 
The  whole  of  Egypt  became  in  time  like  one  closely 
written  volume.  And  great  as  has  been  the  industry  of 
men  like  Champollion,  Eosellini,  Lepsius,  Brugsch,  De 
Rouge,  Mariette,  and  Dümichen,  in  collecting  inscriptions, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  as  yet  no  more  than  a  small 
proportion  of  all  that  the  Egyptian  monuments  have  to 
tell  has  been  made  known  in  the  West.  Yet  the  wealth 
of  materials  is  great  even  now,  and  we  shall  sometimes  be 
more  embarrassed  by  the  excess  than  by  the  want  of 
original  records. 

In  the  case  of  a  nation  like  Egypt,  in  which  state  and 
religion  were  so  closely  united,  almost  all  the  historical 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

monuments  and  records  are  at  the  same  time  sources  for 
the  history  of  religion.  To  enumerate  them  all  would  in 
this  place  be  impossible  and  unnecessary:  they  will  be 
referred  to  in  the  course  of  our  history.  At  present,  I 
merely  desire  to  say  a  few  words  about  what  may  be  more 
definitely  called  the  sacred  literature. 

The  most  prominent  place  in  this  literature  is  occupied 
by  the  collection  of  sacred  texts  to  which  Prof.  Lepsius  has 
given  the  appellation  of  "  The  Book  of  the  Dead,"  and  M. 
De  Eougé  "  The  Funeral  Eitual."  In  the  opinion  of  some 
the  original  Egyptian  title  is  found  in  the  words  written 
at  the  head  of  the  first  chapter,  and  which  signify  "  chap- 
ters by  the  magical  power  of  which  the  deceased  may 
issue  forth  at  will  during  the  day  and  accompany  the  sun 
in  his  triumphal  march." 1  This,  however,  is  the  title  of 
the  first  sixteen  chapters  only,  which  form  a  collection  by 
themselves.  The  opinion  of  De  Eougé,  who  by  "  the  day  " 
spoken  of  in  the  ancient  superscription,  understands  the 
eternal  light,  is  preferable  to  that  of  Lepsius,  who  thinks  it 
refers  to  the  great  day  of  judgment  in  the  under- world. 
/  As  will  afterwards  appear,  the  conception  formed  by  the 
ancient  Egyptians  in  regard  to  the  fate  of  souls  after  death, 
is  derived  from  what  they  saw  daily  happening  to  the 
sun,  which  was  to  them  the  most  complete  manifestation 
of  the  Deity.  The  sun  set  in  the  west  and  rose  again  in 
the  east,  or,  put  in  mythological  form,  the  sun-god  con- 
quered by  the  powers  of  darkness  passed  at  eventide  into 
the  realm  of  the  dead,  waged  there  a  triumphant  contest 
with  numerous  enemies,  and  rose  ao-ain  in  the  mornino- 
with  full  radiance  as  if  new  born.  With  the  human  soul 
it  was  the  same :  in  the  sacred  book,  indeed,  the  soul  is 

1  These  words  have  been  trans-  Egyptians.  As  they  say  "  to  go 
lated  by  scholars  in  various  ways  : —  out  in  the  morning,"  they  say  like- 
by  Champollion  and  E.  de  Rouge,,  wise  "  to  enter  in  the  evening,"  that 
"  Manifestations  in  the  light,  the  is,  to  set  with  the  sun.  The  trans- 
light  of  day;"  by  Lepsius,  "in  lation  of  M.  Lefébure,  "Chapters 
light  ;  "  by  Birch  and  Pierret,  "  the  for  going  out  in  the  day  "  is  the  most 
going  out  of  the  day,"  that  is  to  say  accurate, 
of  life,  an  idea  quite  foreign  to  the 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  23 

wholly  identified  with  the  sun-god.  Dying  with  him,  it 
fights  along  with  him  against  the  evil  spirits  of  the  under- 
world, and  after  having  been  justified  in  the  judgment,  is 
born  again  with  him  and  then  leaves  the  regions  of  the 
under-world  in  order  to  accomplish  as  a  spirit  of  light  in 
his  train  his  triumphal  course  in  the  day.  "The  day" 
must  therefore  be  understood  literally,  and  manifestation 
in  the  day  is  the  beatification  of  the  justified  after  the 
night  of  death  and  conflict,  the  culminating  point  of  the 
ever-renewed  drama. 

The  critical  investigation  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  has 
been  no  more  than  commenced,  but  this  much  is  evident, 
that  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  one  treatise.  It  is  a  collec- 
tion of  documents  belonging  to  different  periods :  the  main 
portion  of  it  was,  however,  in  existence  under  the  Theban 
kings  of  the  New  Kingdom.  At  a  later  period  one  or  two 
additions  were  made  to  it,  but  little  that  was  original. 
Of  the  165  sections  comprised  in  a  MS.  of  the  time  of 
Psamtik  I.,  the  well-known  Turin  papyrus,  the  first  125 
were  collected  and  arranged  in  order  so  early  as  the 
time  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties.  These 
125  sections  are  designated  as  chapters  (to)  with  the 
exception  of  the  last,  which  is  called  the  "  book  "  (sha  or 
shat),  and  it  seems  to  have  been  the  first  supplement  to 
the  original  collection.  The  40  portions  added  afterwards 
are  likewise  called  books  (shatu).  The  last  four  are  quite 
modern,  and  may  be  easily  recognised  as  different  from  the 
rest.  The  most  ancient  MSS.  date  from  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century  B.C.,  but  most 
of  them  are  unfortunately  written  with  great  carelessness. 
The  text  of  some  has  even  been  designedly  mutilated. 
This  dishonesty  could  be  practised  without  fear  of  detec- 
tion as  the  tombs  were  intended  to  be  closed  up  for  ever. 
Also,  no  doubt  it  might  not  always  be  easy  to  meet  the 
numerous  demands  for  copies,  as  every  person  of  means 
wished  that  a  copy  of  the  sacred  book  should  be  taken 
along  with  him  into  his  grave. 


24  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

These,  however,  are  not  the  oldest  texts  which  we  pos- 
sess of  various  portions  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead."  On 
sarcophagi  belonging  to  the  period  previous  to  the  reign  of 
the  Hyksos,  some  chapters  have  been  found  that  occur  in 
the  later  collection,  as  well  as  one  or  two  portions  hitherto 
unknown.  These  texts  throw  a  clear  light  upon  the  way  in 
which  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  was  originally  put  together 
and  came  into  existence.  The  conjecture  which  had  pre- 
viously been  made,  that,  in  the  text  as  given  by  the  MSS., 
a  distinction  must  be  made  between  the  original  nucleus 
and  explanatory  notes  or  glosses  added  later,  has  been 
reduced  to  a  certainty  by  the  evidence  of  the  sarcophagi 
of  the  eleventh  dynasty,  and  of  an  earlier  date.  On  these 
there  occur  some  short  explanations  also,  which  may  be 
distinguished  from  the  ancient  text  by  their  difference  in 
colour,  though  not  in  every  instance  with  exactitude.  A 
comparison  of  the  MSS.  shows  that,  originally,  glosses  and 
additions  were  but  very  sparingly  added,  and  that  there 
was  a  remarkable  increase  in  their  number  under  the 
royal  families  of  the  New  Kingdom.  If  the  tradition  of 
the  Egyptians  themselves  may  be  trusted,  some  portions 
of  the  sacred  volume  are  even  more  ancient  than  the 
eleventh  dynasty.  Thus,  according  to  the  subscription 
attached  to  chap,  lxiv.,  that  chapter  is  said  to  have  been 
discovered  by  Prince  Har- titi-f,  who  inspected  the  temples 
in  the  reign  of  King  Menkaura  (Mycerinus)  of  the  fourth 
dynasty;  at  which  time  the  famous  17th  chapter  is  said  to 
have  been  already  written.  According  to  other  accounts  the 
so-called  scarabean  text,  which  in  the  collection  follows  the 
64th  chapter,  was  written  in  the  reign  of  Menkaura,  and 
the  64th  chapter  itself,  under  an  earlier  king,  Husapti  (the 
Ovaafyats  of  the  Greeks),  but  in  my  opinion  all  this  seems 
very  improbable.1      A  strong  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  the 

1  See   De   Rouge   in   the  Revue  desTodtenbuchsnachSarkofagendes 

archéol.,     i860,  i.    69-99  '■>    Chabas  altaegyptischen  Reichs  im  Berliner 

on  the  Papyrus  Abbott  after  Birch,  Museum,  Einl.  u.  43  Tafeln.  Berl. 

ibid.  1859,  p.  269  et  seq.  ;  especially,  1867. 
however,  Lepsius,    Aelteste  Texten 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  25 

great  majority  of  the  different  parts  of  which  the  "  Book  of 
the  Dead  "  is  composed  is,  that  in  them  there  is  found  no 
mention  of  Amun  or  Amun-ra,  the  chief  god  of  Thebes. 
His  name  occurs  in  the  last?  three  or  four  books  only,  but 
these  betray  their  origin  by  many  foreign  words,  Nubian 
as  well  as  others,  and  likewise  by  their  whole  spirit. 
These  were  most  probably  written  in  Ethiopia,  where  the 
Theban  priests  of  Amun  had  founded  an  independent 
sacerdotal  kingdom,  and  accordingly  belong  to  the  tenth 
or  ninth  century  B.C. 

In  all  the  other  chapters  and  books,  even  in  those  which 
are  not  found  in  the  most  ancient  MSS.,  there  is  no 
mention  of  this  god  who  was  so  ardently  worshipped  by 
the  Amunhoteps  and  Eamesids,  and  after  whom  kings, 
even  of  the  eleventh  dynasty,  were  named.  This  fact  can 
be  explained  only  on  the  hypothesis  that  not  only  those 
portions  of  which  a  collection  was  made  in  the  time  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  but  also  the  books  that  were 
added  later,  were  already  written  before  the  worship  of 
Amun  rose  in  the  fifteenth  and  fourteenth  century  B.C. 
to  such  a  height  of  splendour. 

Hence  arose  the  especial  reverence  with  which  the  y 
Egyptians  regarded  the  book,  and  the  great  degree  of 
sacredness  they  ascribed  to  it.  Beatification  in  the  day 
of  resurrection  was  represented  as  depending  on  a  man's 
knowledge  of  the  principal  chapters  of  it.  "  He  who 
knows  this  book,"  so  says  a  sarcophagus  of  the  eleventh 
dynasty,  "  is  one  who  in  the  day  of  resurrection  in  the 
under-world,  arises  and  enters  in ;  but  if  he  does  not  know 
this  chapter,  he  does  not  enter  in  so  soon  as  he  arises." 
And  the  close  of  the  first  chapter  is  as  follows  : — "  If  a 
man  knows  this  book  thoroughly,  and  has  it  inscribed 
upon  his  sarcophagus,  he  will  be  manifested  in  the  day  in 
all  (the  forms)  that  he  may  desire,  and  entering  in  to  his 
abode  will  not  be  turned  back,"  and  so  on.1  It  hence 
became   customary  for   people  to   learn  it  off  by  heart 

Lepsius,  Aelteste  Texte,  pp.  5,  25. 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

during  their  life,  in  order  that  they  might  thus  keep  in 
check  the  evil  spirits  in  the  under- world,  and  that  they 
might  be  assured  of  the  blessed  life.  Some  portions,  like 
the  64th  chapter,  are  expressly  stated  to  have  been 
written  by  the  deity  himself,  usually  Thot;  and  it  was 
also  told  how  they  were  found  at  or  below  the  feet  of  an 
image  of  the  god,  where  they  had  been  deposited  by  the 
god  himself.1  However  much  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead" 
differs  in  character  and  contents  from  the  Vedas,  the 
Zend-Avesta,  the  Old  Testament,  and  other  books  regarded 
by  various  nations  as  of  divine  origin,  it  may  yet  be 
emphatically  called  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Egyptians. 
On  the  whole,  a  very  false  idea  has  generally  been  en- 
tertained of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead."  Properly  speaking, 
it  is  not  a  book  at  all.  This  arises,  anions:  other  things, 
from  the  very  remarkable  circumstance  that  not  two  of 
the  ancient  papyri  give  the  chapters  or  texts  in  the  same 
order.  It  was  not  until  a  much  later  time,  after  the 
twenty-sixth  dynasty,  that  the  arrangement  of  them 
seems  to  have  become  in  a  measure  fixed.  All  the  ancient 
MSS.  are  thus,  in  fact,  independent  collections  of  texts 
that  are  similar,  and  no  one  of  which  has  ever  been 
generally  adopted.  It  is  consequently  inaccurate  to  give 
the  name  of  unacknowledged  chapters  of  the  "  Book  of  the 
Dead  "  to  magical  texts  which  refer  to  the  life  to  come,  and 
which  have  not  happened  to  be  inserted  in  any  one  of  the 
collections  known  to  us.  In  a  book  that  has  been  brought 
together,  bit  by  bit,  and  that  is  made  up  of  portions  of 
widely  different  degrees  of  antiquity,  plan  or  unity 
cannot  be  expected.      Certain  chapters  (ro,  slid),  indeed, 

1  Lepsius  [Aelt.  Text.  p.  17,  nt.  2,  erection  of  the  sanctuary  in  which 

and  p.  18)  gives   the  following  ex-  the  image  of  the  god  was  placed, 

planation  of  the  discovery  of  these  Under  the  feet  of  this  image  lay  the 

documents.     The  founding  of  a  town  most  sacred  foundation  {senti),  and 

began  with  that  of  the  temple  dedi-  under  it,  a  cavity  for  the  reception 

cated   to  the   local   deity,    e.g.,   at  of  sacred  records  or  papyri.     When 

Hermopolis  with  that  of  Thot,  and  long    afterwards    these   documents 

the   building   of    the   temple   com-  happened  to  be   found,   they  were 

menced    with    the    founding    and  ascribed  to  a  divine  origin. 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  27 

are  a  sort  of  summary  of  the  phases  of  life  after  death, 
from  the  first  successively  to  the  last.  The  first  chapter 
itself  ends  with  the  issue  to  the  day  which  is  the  culminat- 
ing point  of  the  drama  ;  and  the  same  is  the  case  in  the 
17th,  the  64th,  and  some  others.  But  some,  on  the 
contrary,  present  only  some  special  points  treated  in  an 
isolated  way.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  final 
moment  of  the  conflict.  Others,  like  the  45th,  include 
sacred  texts,  hymns,  or  prayers. 

We  should  accordingly  seek  in  vain  for  any  regular  order, 
either  logical  or  chronological,  in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead," 
but  there  is  nevertheless  observable  a  certain  arrangement 
of  the  material.  Usually  those  portions  which  treat  of 
analogous  subjects  are  found  conjoined,  and  it  is  possible 
to  point  out  two  or  three  large  separate  collections.  Thus 
in  agreement  with  Lepsius  wre  find  two  distinct  principal 
ones  :  chaps,  xvii.-lxiii.,  and  chaps,  lxiv.-cxxiv.  These  are 
preceded  by  a  small  collection  of  sixteen  chapters,  forming 
a  group  by  themselves,  and  are  followed  by  the  later  addi- 
tions, of  which  the  125th  chapter  is  the  most  ancient,  and 
these  in  turn  may  be  divided  into  different  groups.  The^ 
first  sixteen  chapters  have  not  hitherto  been  discovered  on 
ancient  sarcophagi,  and  they  appear  to  be  of  somewhat 
more  recent  date  than  the  two  principal  collections,  but 
more  ancient  than  the  additions,  chaps,  cxxvi.-clxv.  In 
these  sixteen  chapters,  the  complete  drama  of  the  resur- 
rection is  unfolded.  The  deceased  travels  through  the 
regions  of  the  under- world,  is  justified  in  the  sight  of  his 
enemies,  and  already,  in  the  nth  chapter,  is  represented 
as  triumphing  in  the  form  of  Ea,  the  sun-god.  In  the  1 5th 
chapter  he  has  reached  the  goal,  for  he  beholds  the  light, 
and  is  admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  Ka  and  Turn  to  sing 
the  praises  of  these  gods. 

The  two  collections  that  follow  begin  each  with  one  of 
the  two  indisputably  most  ancient  chapters  of  the  whole 
book,  the  17th  and  the  64th.  Chaps,  xvii.-lxiii.  comprise 
again  the  same  cycle  as  chaps.  i.-xvi.,  but  in  a  totally  dif- 


28         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

ferent  form.  The  17th  chapter,  the  most  important  of  all, 
is  complete  in  itself,  and  represents  the  deceased  as  one 
already  justified.  To  give  an  idea  of  its  contents,  the  com- 
mencement, after  the  most  ancient  text,  and  without  ex- 
planations or  glosses,  is  here  quoted,  the  translation  being 
that  of  Lepsius : — 

"  I  am  Turn  (the  hidden  sun-god),  a  being  who  is  one 
alone ; 

I  am  Ea  in  his  first  supremacy ; 

I  am  the  great  god,  the  self-existing ; 

The  creator  of  his  name,  the  Lord  of  all  gods, 

Whom  none  among  the  gods  upholds. 

I  was  yesterday,  I  know  the  to-morrow. 

There  was  a  battlefield  of  the  gods  prepared  when  I 
spoke ; 

I  know  the  name  of  that  great  god  who  is  in  that  place. 

I  am  the  great  Bennu  1  who  is  worshipped  in  An  (Helio- 
polis). 

I  am  Chem  (Min)  in  his  appearing ;  I  have  set  both  my 
feathers  upon  my  head ; 

1  am  come  home  to  the  city  of  my  abode."  2 

1  The  Bennu,  a  species  of  heron,  bol  of  the  bennu-bird),  and  was  also 
is,  as  a  bird  of  passage,  the  symbol  the  symbol  of  definite  periods  of 
of  the  sun-god,  who  disappears  at  time.  That  Herodotus  limited  the 
night,  and  shows  himself  again  in  phoenix  to  An  (Heliopolis),  while  the 
the  morning.  Brugsch  compares  it  Bennu  was  worshipped  also  at  Aby- 
to  the  phoenix  (<poivL^),  mentioned  by  dos,  is  little  to  the  point,  for  Hero- 
Herodotus,  and  considers  the  Greek  dotus  happened  to  hear  the  myth  of 
name  a  corruption  of  the  Egyptian,  the  Heliopolitan  priests,  which  was 
Lepsius'  ground  of  objection  to  this  not  extensively  known  in  Egypt. 
opinion  appears  to  me  rather  weak.  More  than  this,  Horapollo  also  calls 
Herodotus,  it  is  true,  says  he  never  the  <poivi%  a  symbol  of  the  sun  and  of 
saw  a  phoenix,  though  he  must  have  the  soul,  which,  just  like  a  bird  of 
known  the  heron  quite  well ;  but  the  passage,  come  home  again  after  long 
phoenix  he  did  not  see  is  the  mythi-  wanderings.  Horap.,  Hierogl.,  ed. 
cal  bird  which  is  said  to  return  once  Leemans,  i.  34,  35. 
every  five  hundred  years.  The  Egyp-  2  The  way  in  which  glosses  and 
tian  b  does  not  correspond,  in  the  commentaries  have  by  degrees  fas- 
opinion  of  Lepsius,  to  0  ;  yet  he  him-  tened  themselves  on  to  this  ancient 
self  says  that  the  palm-tree,  called  text  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
<pobi£  by  the  Greeks,  is  also  called  example  : — 

in  the  Egyptian  bennu  (Kopt.  beni,  Ancient  text — "  I   am   the  great 

benne),    and   that   the   palm-branch  Bennu  of  An." 

(Kopt.  ba,  bai)  bore  the  same  name  1st  Commentary  (sarcophagus  of 

as  the  soul  (be,  ba,  bai,  with  the  sym-  Menuhotep,   1  ith  dynasty) — "  That 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  29 

This  chapter  is  the  opening  one  of  a  series,  in  which  a 
certain  regular  order  of  events  may  be  clearly  traced  out. 

After  having,  in  three  sets  of  texts  of  similar  import, 
told  of  the  justification  of  the  deceased,  and,  as  might  be 
expected,  brought  it  into  connection  with  the  divine  ex- 
ample, the  justification  of  Osiris  by  Thot,  a  description  is 
given  next  of  the  events  that  immediately  follow  in  Cher 
Meter  (the  under-world).  The  principal  fruit  of  his  justi-V. 
fication  is,  that  the  use  of  his  members  is  restored  to  him, 
especially  of  his  mouth,  that  he  may  be  able  to  utter  the 
sacred  words  indispensable  as  a  means  of  warding  off  the 
evil  spirits,  and  of  his  heart,  which  is  the  principle  of  life. 
And  now  the  revivified  one  has  to  enter  upon  the  conflict. 
He  is  obliged  to  contend  with  all  kinds  of  monsters  that 
approach  him,  in  the  shape  of  snakes,  crocodiles,  tortoises, 
and  especially  in  that  of  the  great  serpent,  Eefrof  or  Apep. 
He  overcomes  these  opponents  with  two  weapons  of  two 
kinds,  a  long  spear  that  he  always  carries  with  him,  and 
the  magical  power  of  the  sacred  words  which  he  pro- 
nounces. Not  until  he  has  withstood  this  trial  and  gained 
the  victory  does  he  rest  secure  from  the  miseries  that 
await  the  wicked,  and  not  till  then  are  vouchsafed  to  him 
the  blessings  laid  up  for  the  faithful.  Both  of  these  are 
next  described.  The  worst  punishment  is  undoubtedly  the 
second  death.  It  consists  in  this :  Horos  or  some  other  deity 
beheads  the  condemned  person  upon  the  Nemma  or  scaf- 
fold ;  but  there  are  also  other  punishments,  such  as  being 
obliged  to  eat  and  drink  putrid  victual.  On  the  other 
hand,  blessedness  consists  in  the  inhalation  of  the  pure 
breath  of  life,  and  in  drinking  of  the  water  of  life,  ideas 
which  recur  at  a  later  period  principally  in  the  Jewish 

is     the    fulfilling    of    that     which  3d  Comment,    (beginning   of   the 

is."  New  Kingdom) — "That  is — An  is 

2d  Comment,  (end  of  the  Middle  his  body,  or  also  is  the  always  and  the 

Kingdom) — "  That  is  the  fulfilling,  forever  ;  the  always,  now,  is  the  day, 

&c.     What  is  that  ?     Osiris  it  is  of  and   the  forever  the  night." — Lep- 

An,  and  that  which  is,  is  the  always  sius,  Aelt.  Texte,  p.  46. 
and  the  forever." 


3o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

apocalyptic  writings,  and  even  in  Christian  symbolism. 
With  these  descriptions,  the  63d  chapter  and  the  second 
collection  is  brought  to  a  close. 

The  collection  that  follows  treats  in  part  of  the  same 
things,  but  in  another  generally  more  detailed  form.  The 
chapters  which  give  a  summary  of  the  whole  progress,  as 
the  extremely  ancient  64th  and  the  little  less  interesting 
/2d,  here  again  stand  first.  The  deceased  attains  again  the 
point  at  which  the  sun  is  born,  and  thereafter  An,  the 
celestial  (?)  Heliopolis,  where  the  sun  as  Bennu  again  sets 
out  on  his  journey  in  the  world  of  light.  Then  in  the 
following  chapters  the  subject  is  taken  up  of  the  various 
forms  which  the  soul,  now  become  a  Chu  or  spirit  of  light, 
can  assume.  Properly  speaking,  it  is  able  to  disguise  itself 
in  any  shape  that  caprice  may  suggest,  and  the  principal 
ones  only  are  mentioned.  In  a  set  of  five  chapters  the 
union  of  soul  and  body  is  depicted,  and  the  pilgrimage 
already  described  begins  once  more.  The  idea  of  conflict 
falls  more  into  the  background,  and  advance  into  the] 
light-manifestation  is  here  in  a  greater  degree,  but  not 
exclusively,  considered  as  progress  in  heavenly  know- 
ledge, destined  to  be  crowned  with  full  manifestation  in 
the  light. 

The  one  and  forty  chapters  with  which  the  book  concludes 
are  deficient  even  in  the  slight  unity  and  connection  which 
marked  the  preceding  collections.  Some,  like  the  famous 
125th,  include  a  number  of  things  not  referred  to  in  the 
previous  parts,  but  most  are  devoted  to  the  elaboration  of 
points  which  had  been  mentioned  before.  Mystical  cere- 
monies are  described,  especially  those  having  reference  to 
objects  with  which  the  neck  of  the  deceased  was  orna- 
mented. But  the  chief  end  aimed  at  in  these  texts  is  to 
make  as  perfect  as  possible  the  knowledge  requisite  to  the 
departed,  since  it  is  by  means  of  that  alone  that  he  can 
gain  the  victory  in  the  conflict  which  takes  place  in  the 
under-world.  With  a  view  to  this  he  is  instructed  as  to 
the  names  of  holy  places,  spirits,  and  gods,  and,  among 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  31 

other  things,  there  is  a  list  of  no  less  than  a  hundred  names 
of  Osiris,  names  to  which  a  powerful  magical  efficacy  is 
ascribed. 

Since  every  text,  the  shortest  ones  included,  and  at  a 
later  time  the  collection  as  a  whole,  had  for  its  object  to 
give  aid  to  the  deceased  in  this  way,  the  magical  words  are 
in  consequence  found  plentifully  inscribed  in  connection 
with  the  dead.  They  were  graven  on  the  sarcophagi, 
written  on  the  bandages  of  the  mummies  and  on  other 
objects,  especially  on  a  papyrus  deposited  by  the  side  of 
the  corpse.  Down  to  the  time  of  the  twenty-first  dynasty 
hieroglyphics  were  employed  for  this  purpose,  and  after- 
wards in  later  times  hieratic  writing.  But  also — and  here 
M.  de  Eougé's  view  is  correct — the  sacred  texts  were  made 
use  of  in  the  sacred  ceremonies  celebrated  in  honour  of  the 
deceased,  or  rather  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  This  fact 
is  attested  by  a  great  number  of  explanatory  notes,  found 
at  the  end  of  several  of  the  chapters.1 

We  must  not,  however,  over-estimate  the  "  Book  of  the 
Dead  "  as  a  source  for  the  history  of  Egyptian  religion.  It 
is,  doubtless,  one  of  the  principal  sources  we  possess  for 
their  eschatological  beliefs,  for  the  ideas  which  they  enter- 
tained about  what  was  to  be  expected  in  the  future,  but  J 
in  reference  to  their  religious  beliefs  it  is  not  equally  valu- 
able. No  doubt  the  prayers  and  hymns  included  in  it 
possess,  in  regard  to  the  latter,  great  value  ;  but  most  fre- 
quently it  contains  only  short  and  obscure  mythological 
speculations,  which,  far  from  helping  to  explain  anything, 
have  great  need  themselves  of  a  commentary. 

There  exist  a  great  number  of  texts  analogous  to  those  in 
the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  which  may  well  have  been  either 
not  gathered  into  it,  or  not  written  till  after  the  collection 
was  closed.     Of  these  I  shall  notice  particularly  two  only. 

1  See  chaps,  xix.,  xx.,  lxiv.,  cxxx.  lxx.,    lxxxiv.,    lxxxix.,    xci.,    xcii., 

(very  ancient,    though    it   certainly  xcix.,   cxxx  v.,  are  likewise  very  in- 

contains  interpolations  of  later  date),  structive.     Some,  such  as  the  18th, 

cxxxiii.,  cxxxvi.     The  titles  affixed  were  set  apart  for  special  days, 
to  chaps,  i.,  xxxi.,  xlii.,  xlv.,  lviii., 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

In  the  first  place,  the  "Book  of  the  Breathings  of  Life"  (Slid 
an  Sensen),  known  to  ns  from  a  manuscript  of  the  time  of 
the  Ptolemys.  Its  doctrine  is  in  perfect  accordance  with 
that  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead ; "  it  was  looked  upon  as  very- 
sacred,  and  was  placed  beneath  the  left  arm  of  the  corpse, 
next  the  heart.  ISTo  less  holy  were  the  Laments  of  Isis 
and  of  Nephthys  after  the  death  of  Osiris.  This,  properly 
speaking,  formed  a  ritual  which  was  known  only  by  the 
priests  of  the  highest  rank,  and  was  recited  at  the  festival 
of  Osiris. 

The  magical  papyri,  several  of  which  have  been  dis- 
covered, and  some  published  and  explained  by  scholars,1 
appear  to  have  been  composed  with  an  aim  similar  to  that 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  par  excellence,  which  we  have  just 
been  considering.  The  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  is,  in  fact,  no- 
thing  else  than  a  great  magical  papyrus  for  behoof  of  the 
dead,  or  at  least  it  was  studied  by  the  living  with  an  eye 
to  the  conflict  and  the  judgment  of  Osiris  that  awaited 
them  in  the  under-world.  The  other  writings  to  which 
this  designation  has  been  given  were  intended,  not  for  the 
use  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living.  They  are  collections  of 
ancient  texts,  hymns  for  the  most  part,  and  more  modern 
magical  formulas  that  had  to  serve  here  on  earth  as  the 
means  of  warding  off  diseases,  sickness,  evil  spirits,  and 
hurtful  beasts.  The  very  existence  of  these  formulas 
bears  witness  to  a  decline  in  the  religious  consciousness, 
but  in  as  far  as  they  comprise  ancient  fragments,  they  are 
of  the  highest  importance  for  the  religious  literature. 

Kot  least  important  are  the  numerous  hymns  in  which 
the  Egyptians  sang  the  praises  of  their  gods.  Looked  at 
from  a  literary  point  of  view,  they  deserve  to  be  placed 
in  the  first  rank.  In  form,  they  remind  us  at  times  of  the 
creations  of  ancient  Hebrew  poetry.  Their  contents,  how- 
ever, correspond  better  with  some  of  the  Vedic  songs,  and 

1  Along  with  others,  the  Papyrus  revers  du  Musée  de  Leide,  in  the 
Magique  Harris,  by  F.  Chabas,  Cha-  Etudes  Egyptologiques  of  W.  Pleyte, 
Ion,    i860;    and   the  Papyrus   348     Leiden,  1866. 


THE  SACRED  LITERATURE.  33 

with  the  sacrificial  songs  of  the  Persians ;  they  are  per- 
vaded by  a  spirit  so  lofty,  by  such  poetic  fervour  and 
inspiration,  conjoined  throughout  to  depth  of  thought, 
that,  in  iny  judgment,  they  surpass  at  least  the  last  of 
these. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  hymns  are  among  the  most 
ancient  products  of  sacred  Egyptian  literature.  What 
tends  to  prove  this  is  the  fact  of  their  being  used,  as 
they  were  in  the  magical  papyri,  as  charms  against  evil 
spirits  and  beasts  of  prey,  and  their  being  even  found 
woven  into  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead."  Not  unfrequently, 
too,  they  were  graven  on  little  flat  columns  (stelae),  which 
the  Egyptians  were  accustomed  to  place  in  their  tombs. 
Those  dedicated  by  the  heretic  Amunhotep  IV.  (Chun- 
aten)  to  a  deity  by  whom  he  caused  Amun  to  be  sup- 
planted are  by  no  means  the  least  exalted.  Although 
the  hymns  are  occasionally  obscure,  as  is  the  case  with 
the  Vedic  songs,  because  they  rather  contain  references 
to  myths  than  explain  the  mythical  stories,  they  still 
give  us,  better  than  anything  else,  a  conception  of  the 
nature  of  the  gods.  And  that  which  has  been  remarked 
in  the  most  ancient  songs  of  the  Hindu  people  holds 
good  here  also,  at  least  for  the  New  Kingdom ;  the  god 
in  whose  praise  the  hymn  is  sung,  Osiris,  Ptah,  Ea, 
Shu,  Amun,  or  whoever  it  may  be,  is  always,  for  the 
singer,  the  highest,  if  not  the  only  one;  all  the  others 
sink  into  the  background. 

Besides  these  writings  having  direct  reference  to  reli- 
gion,  which  are  the  principal  sources  for  our  history,  there 
are  others  also,  such  as  the  already  mentioned  moral  essay 
of  Ptahhotep,  or  such  as  the  "  Tale  of  the  Two  Brothers," 
a  legend  of  the  time  of  Seti  Merenptah  II.,  the  son  of 
Eamses  II.,  which  can  do  us  service  in  aiding  us  to 
understand  rightly  the  spirit  of  the  Egyptian  religion. 
The  latter  especially  contains  a  rich  store  of  mythological 
material,  and,  when  carefully  considered,  is  seen  to  be 
nothing   else   than   the   chief    myth   of    the    Egyptians 

c 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

moulded  into  the  form  of  a  tale.1  The  temple  inscrip- 
tions likewise  yield  to  the  investigator  of  religious  history 
a  superabundant  harvest. 

1  It  is  translated  by  E.  de  Rouge  dem  Orient.,  Berl.  1864,  P-  7  et  sea. 
in  the  Revue  Archéologique,  1852,  Comp.  Ebers,  op.  cit.  i.  ->u  et 
p.  385  et  seq.,  and  by  Brugsch,  Aus     scg. 


(    35    ) 


CHAPTEK  III 

THE  KELIGION   OF   THINIS-ABYDOS.1 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  which  is  the  most  ancient 
religion  of  Egypt.  Some  forms  of  religious  worship  are 
known  to  us  as  having  arisen,  or  at  least  as  having  for  the 
first  time  acquired  significance  in  historic  times.  This 
was  the  case,  to  give  one  instance  out  of  many,  with 
Amun-worship.  The  institution  of  certain  customs  is 
recorded;  for  example,  that  of  the  worship  of  sacred 
animals  at  Memphis  and  Heliopolis.  But  whether  those 
religions  which  appear  first  on  the  stage  of  history  are 
in  reality  more  ancient  than  those  which  rose  to  supre- 
macy in  later  times  cannot  now  be  made  out ;  this  may, 
however,  in  the  case  of  one  or  two,  be  asserted  with  a 
high  degree  of  probability.  But  we  can  tell  with  certainty 
what  religions  are  mentioned  earliest  on  the  monuments, 
and  thus  are  shown  to  have  reached,  sooner  than  others, 
an  epoch  of  splendour. 

Before  Egypt  was  united  as  one  kingdom  there  flou- 
rished, side  by  side,  just  so  many  local  worships  as  there 
were  small  kingdoms  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  These 
different  worships  were  not  brought  methodically,  or,  rather, 
they  did  not  attain,  without  many  struggles  and  at  times 
severe  conflict,  to  a  system  of  polytheism,  manifold  at 
first,  and  extending  constantly.     It  was  later  still  that 

1  The  author  has  now  reasons  for  order,  and  that  it  was  preceded  by 

thinking  that  this  form  of  the  ancient  the  religion  of  Heliopolis  (chap.  iv. ), 

religion  of  the  Egyptians  came  origi-  the  chief  god  of  which  is  Ra. 
nally  only  second  in  the  chronological 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

they  passed  into  a  system  more  monotheistic  in  character, 
towards  which  the  Egyptian  religion  had  a  strong  tendency. 

The  policy  of  those  wise  kings  who,  in  the  course  of 
centuries,  reigned  over  Egypt  was  not  an  exclusive  one. 
They  purposely  rendered  homage  to  the  chief  gods  of  all 
the  principal  divisions  of  their  kingdom,  to  the  gods  of 
the  north  and  of  the  south,  of  Memphis  and  of  Thebes,  of 
the  Delta  and  of  Nubia,  and  endeavoured  to  unite  them 
into  a  sort  of  pantheon.  As  the  result  of  this  policy, 
they  were  enabled  to  exercise  their  power  undisturbed, 
and  rule  in  peace  within  the  boundaries  of  their  territory. 
Other  kings,  who  did  not  adopt  this  policy  but  were 
zealously  devoted  to  the  god  of  one  particular  locality  and 
to  one  special  form  of  worship,  and  who  excluded  and 
persecuted  those  who  were  not  of  their  way  of  thinking, 
had  to  experience,  in  serious  insurrections,  the  conse- 
quences of  their  unstatesmanlike  policy.  Some  of  them 
even  lost  in  this  way  all  their  power.  Yet  in  all  cases 
the  dominant  religion  of  the  kingdom  is  that  of  the 
reigning  dynasty,  and  in  every  case  the  religion  of  the 
reigning  dynasty  is  the  local  worship  of  its  place  of 
origin. 

The  first  dynasty  that  ruled  over  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt  in  historic  times  is  that  which  is  said  to  have  been 
founded  by  Menes  (Mena  is  the  name  of  the  sacred  bull 
of  Heliopolis),  a  mythic  personage,  who  is  perhaps  the 
same  as  Minos  and  the  Indian  Manu.  Previous  to  his 
time   the   Egyptians   are   habitually    called   Hor-Shesu,1 

1  The  reading  Shesu-Har  {hor  or  princes  successors  of  H.  the  divine 
her)  of  De  Rouge  and  Brugsch  seems  ruler,  who  had  reigned  first  of  all. 
preferable  to  that  of  Duemichen,  But  even  in  that  case  it  would  not 
Shai-her.  It  may  be  translated  be  only  the  kings  before  Menes  who 
servants  of  H.  and  successors  of  would  have  a  claim  to  the  title. 
H.  ;  since,  however,  the  word  never  All  kings  are  called  by  the  Egyp- 
occurs  in  a  royal  cartouche,  or  accom-  tians,  not  successors  of  Horos,°but 
panied  by  the  emblems  of  regal  Horos.  They  are  identified  with 
power,  it  cannot  be  supposed  to  him,  a  conception  much  more  f  ami- 
refer  to  any  king,  though  it  would  liar  to  the  Egyptians.  By  Shesu- 
not  be  in  the  least  extraordinary  har  is  undoubtedly  always  meant 
to  find  the  Egyptians  calling  their  the  most  ancient  men,  or  the  most 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  37 

worshippers  or  servants  of  Hor  or  Horos,  while  Horos x  is 
always  regarded  as  the  master  and  creator  of  the  Eutu, 
the  men  of  higher  race,  of  pure  native  extraction.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that,  like  Horos  himself,  the  Shesu-Hor 
are  mythical  beings. 

The  worship  of  Osiris  and  that  of  Ea  are  the  most 
ancient  religions  mentioned  on  the  oldest  monuments. 
They  are  those  which  in  after-times  prevailed  most 
generally,  and  may  be  said  to  have  formed  the  founda- 
tion of  the  national  religion. 

The  worship  of  the  Memphitic  Ptah  and  of  the  Saitic 
goddess  Keith,  mentioned  not  quite  so  early,  but  still  on 
very  old  monuments,  is  perhaps  equally  ancient,  at  least 
the  latter  is  very  probably  so.  There  is,  however,  reason 
to  think  that  neither  of  .them  were  of  purely  Egyptian 
origin,  and  they  were  certainly  not  adopted  into  the 
religious  system  of  the  Eutu  and  universally  acknow- 
ledged until  a  later  period. 

The  principal  ancient  seat  of  Osiris- worship,  a  form  of 
Horos-worship,  is  without  doubt  Thinis  (Teni),  the  town 
from  which  the  royal  house  of  Mena  and  the  dynasty 
next  in  succession  take  their  name,  Thinitic.  It  is 
situated  in  Upper  Egypt,  about  sixty  geographical  miles 
to  the  south  of  Memphis,  and  fifteen  miles  to  the  north 
of  Thebes,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile.  Osiris  is  con- 
stantly designated  Lord  of  Abydos  (Abet),  a  place  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  Thinis,  by  which  it  appears 
to  have  been  cast  into  the  shade ;  or  perhaps  he  is  thus 
named  as  lord  of  the  district  (nomos)  in  which  Thinis 
and  Abydos  were  situated.  The  town  itself  bore  the 
sacred  name,  house  of  Osiris,  and  the  temples  that  have 
been  discovered  there  were  dedicated  to  him.  Hitherto 
the  only  temples  known  were  those  founded  by  Seti  I. 

ancient  Egyptians,  who,  as  the  people         1  Horos,  a  god  of  Upper  as  well 

believed,  lived  in  the  abodes  of  the  as  of  Lower  Egypt,  fills  an  important 

blest  with  Osiris.      See  De  Rouge,  place  in  the  circle  of  Osiris  and  in 

Monuments  des  YI.  preni.  Dynasties,  that  of  Ra. 
p.  163  et  seq. 


and  Eamses  II.,  kings  of  the  nineteenth  dynasty,  but 
some  years  ago  the  indefatigable  Mariette  discovered  to 
the  north  of  Abydos  the  remains  of  a  much  older 
temple,  which  not  unfrequently  crumbled  to  dust  on 
being  exposed  to  the  air.  The  inscriptions  he  found 
testified  to  visits  having  been  paid  by  various  sovereigns 
to  this  venerable  sanctuary.  The  other  temples  erected 
in  honour  of  Osiris,  like  those  at  Memphis,  at  Mendes 
in  Lower  Egypt,  on  the  island  Phineb  at  Philak  in  the 
south,  and  in  Ethiopia,  are  undoubtedly  all  of  later  date. 
At  Thinis- Abydos  Osiris  was  worshipped  as  the  king  of 
eternity  dwelling  in  the  west,  and  ruler  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  dead.  At  his  side  there,  but  below  him,  stood 
Anhur,  a  war-god  armed  with  a  sword,  apparently  a  form 
of  the  god  who  is  met  with  at  Heliopolis,  and  at  a  later 
period  at  Thebes,  under  the  name  of  Shu;1  Horos,  the 
avenger  of  his  father ;  Isis,  the  great  mother,  and  the  four 
children  of  the  concealed  (Mescheri),  which  may  possibly 
refer  to  the  four  genii  of  the  dead.  The  other  gods  of  the 
Osirian  circle  had,  even  in  the  earliest  times,  temples 
of  their  own  in  Upper  Egypt.  The  temple  of  Thot  at 
Sesennu  (Ashmunein)  is  mentioned  on  the  very  oldest 
monuments.  The  temple  of  Hathor  and  Horos  at  Den- 
dera,  founded  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  is,  in  a  very 
old  record  found  in  that  place,  brought  into  connection 
with  Chufu  of  the  fourth  dynasty  and  even  with  the 
Shesu-har,2  and  thus  appears  to  have  supplanted  a  sim- 
pler sanctuary.  That  of  Horos  at  Edfu  is  so  closely  con- 
nected with  it  that  it  must  be  quite  as  ancient,  although 
the  sanctuary,  the  ruins  of  which  are  still  to  be  found 
there,  belongs  to  the  latest  period  of  the  Egyptian  king- 
dom. The  temple',  at  Hermonthis  perhaps  belongs  like- 
wise to  the  same  time. 


1  Chabas,  Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  pp.  connected  with  anku  =  embrace,  in- 

37,  40.     Anhur  is  thus  a  god  of  the  elude. 

heaven  or  of  the  air,  as  is  indicated  -  Duemichen,    Bauurkunde    ron 

by  the  name,  which  may  easily  be  ^Dendera,  Taf.  vi. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  39 

Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  myth  of  Osiris  in  Plutarch. 
With  him  it  becomes  entirely  a  traditionary  tale,  although 
he  himself  expressly  warns  us  not  to  take  it  for  history. 
Osiris,  an  Egyptian  king,  not  satisfied  with  combating 
rude  and  barbarous  customs  in  his  own  kingdom,  travels 
through  the  world,  that  he  may  everywhere  spread  the 
blessings  of  civilisation.  In  his  absence,  the  queen,  his 
wife  and  sister,  acts  as  regent,  and  firmly  maintains  all 
the  institutions  of  Osiris,  taking  care  to  see  that  no  in- 
fraction of  them  occurs.  This  vexes  Typhon,  her  own 
and  Osiris'  brother,  who  would  have  liked  to  introduce  a 
different  and  ruder  law,  and  who  now,  alon^  with  some  of 
the  nobles  and  an  Ethiopian  queen,  forms  a  conspiracy  to 
kill  Osiris.  He  causes  a  chest  or  sarcophagus  to  be  pre- 
pared, made  so  as  exactly  to  fit  the  body  of  his  brother 
Osiris ;  whom,  along  with  the  conspirators,  he  invites  to  a 
banquet.  As  if  in  jest,  he  promises  to  make  a  present  of 
the  chest  to  him  whom  it  may  be  found  to  fit.  All  in 
turn  lie  down  in  it,  but  of  course  without  success;  scarcely, 
however,  has  Osiris  done  so,  when  the  lid  is  put  on  and 
fastened  closely  down.  The  chest  is  then  thrown  into  the 
river,  and  floats  out  to  sea  by  the  Tanaïtic  branch  of 
the  Nile.  After  some  time  it  is  stranded  at  Byblos,  a 
Phoenician  town  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  and  there  it  gets 
entangled  in  the  boughs  of  a  tamarind  tree,  which  grows 
over  it  so  completely  as  to  wholly  conceal  it.  Mean- 
while, as  soon  as  tidings  of  the  horrid  deed  reach  them, 
Isis,  along  with  Nephthys,  her  sister,  fill  the  air  with 
shrieks  of  despair  and  cries  of  wailing.  Isis  goes  every- 
where seeking  her  murdered  consort,  and  at  last  discovers 
him  in  the  palace  of  the  king  at  Byblos,  who  had  caused 
the  tamarind  tree  to  be  hewn  down  and  a  pillar  to  be 
made  out  of  it  for  his  house.  With  this  precious  treasure 
she  now  returns  to  Egypt;  but,  while  visiting  her  son 
Horos  at  Bubastis,  she  neglects  to  take  proper  care  of  the 
sarcophagus,  and  Typhon,  hunting  by  moonlight,  finds  and 
opens  it,  and  cuts  the  body  of  his  brother  into  fourteen 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

pieces,  which  he  scatters  over  the  country.  But  Isis 
manages  to  recover  the  whole  of  them,  one  after  another, 
and  causes  each  to  be  buried  at  the  place  where  it  was 
discovered.  And  now  Horos  arises  as  avenger  of  his 
father.  He  challenges  Typhon  and  overcomes  him,  and 
afterwards  delivers  him  over  to  Isis.  She  lets  him  go 
free  again,  and  when  Horos  hears  that  she  has  done  so  he 
is  filled  with  indignation.  After  having  sternly  rebuked 
her  for  thus  yielding,  he  attacks  Typhon  again  twice  over, 
and  finally  succeeds  in  killing  him  outright.  Osiris  then 
becomes  lord  of  the  world  of  the  dead,  and  Isis,  who  has 
continued  to  have  intercourse  with  him  there,  brings  forth 
Harpocrates,  a  child  born  prematurely,  and  lame  in  both 
legs. 

We  shall  not  occupy  ourselves  with  the  explanations  of 
this  myth  given  by  the  Greek  moralist.  He  gives  it  in 
the  form  in  which  it  was  related  in  his  time.  His  version 
thus  presents,  along  with  much  that  is  ancient  and  genuine, 
some  traits  of  more  recent  origin  or  of  foreign  derivation. 
Also,  one  part  of  the  story  is  given  erroneously,  for  Harpo- 
crates, who  is  merely  one  of  the  forms  in  which  Horos 
appears,  is  distinguished  from  him  as  a  separate  being. 
Harpocrates  is  the  young  Horos,  Har  pe  chruti,  i.e.,  Har 
the  child,  represented  by  the  Egyptians  as  sitting  in  the 
lap  of  his  mother,  with  his  hand  on  his  mouth  and  his 
legs  hanging  down.  The  Greeks  fancied  the  dangling  legs 
were  lame.  At  a  later  time  he  was  even  looked  upon  as 
the  god  of  taciturnity,  because  of  his  hand  pointing  to  his 
mouth — this,  however,  was  with  the  Egyptians  the  sign 
that  he  was  yet  an  infant  and  could  not  speak.  The 
foreign  part  of  the  myth  is  that  in  which  Byblos  is  men- 
tioned. That  part  has  been  incorporated  with  the  view 
of  bringing  the  worship  of  Adonis,  which  prevailed  there, 
into  connection  with  the  Egyptian  Osiris-worship ;  just  as 
Lucian  likewise  relates  how,  at  the  great  festival  of  Adonis, 
a  head  was  observed  to  have  come  ashore,  which  had 
floated  thither  from  Egypt,  and  was  thereupon  consigned 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  41 

to  the  earth  with  great  pomp.  It  was  only  in  relatively 
modern  times  that  the  Egyptians  ventured  to  navigate 
the  Mediterranean,  so  that  in  ancient  times  Byblos  must 
have  been  unknown  to  them.  What  is  said  about  the 
sarcophagus  drifting  to  sea  through  the  Tanaïtic  branch 
of  the  Nile  cannot  be  original  either,  for  that  branch  did 
not  become  famous  in  the  estimation  of  the  Egyptians  till 
the  Shepherd  Kings  had  made  Tanis  (San,  Hebr.  Zoan)  a 
centre  of  the  worship  of  Sutech,  the  god  who  is  supposed 
to  be  identical  with  Typhon.  The  division  of  the  body 
of  Osiris  into  fourteen  pieces  seems  to  have  been  invented 
as  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that  so  many  towns  in  Egypt 
could  boast  of  possessing  the  grave  of  this  deity. 

Nevertheless,  along  with  those  marks  of  a  more  recent 
period,  the  tale  comprises  elements  of  great  antiquity,  and 
the  foundation  of  the  myth,  its  nucleus,  is  as  ancient  as 
the  kingdom  of  Egypt.  The  principal  outlines  of  it  are 
found  recurring  in  various  original  records.  In  a  hymn 
in  honour  of  Osiris,  belonging  to  the  first  years  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty,  i.e.,  to  the  commencement  of  the  New 
Kingdom,  we  read  as  follows  : — 'c  His  sister  Isis  has  been 
filled  with  concern  about  him,  and  has  scattered  his  enemies 
in  a  threefold  rout.  .  .  .  She  is  Isis,  the  illustrious,  the 
avenger  of  her  brother ;  she  has  sought  him  without  rest- 
ing ;  she  has  wandered  all  round  the  world  as  a  mourner ; 
she  did  not  cease  until  she  had  found  him.  She  has  made 
light  with  her  feathers,  she  has  made  wind  with  her  wings, 
she  has  made  the  invocations  of  the  burial  of  her  brother ; 
she  has  taken  with  her  the  principles  of  the  god  with  the 
peaceable  heart,  she  has  made  an  extract  of  his  being,  she 
has  made  (thereof)  a  child,  she  has  suckled  the  infant  in 
secret.     No  man  knows  where  that  was  done." 1 

This  representation  is  indeed  in  some  respects  different 
from  that  of  Plutarch,  since  here,  not  Horos  but  Isis  is 
the  avenger  of  Osiris,  and  Set-Typhon  is  not  even  named ; 

1  The  translation  is  that  of  Chabas  in  the  Rev.  Archéol.,  1857,  p.  65 
et  seq.,  and  p.  193  et  seq. 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

but  in  a  MS.  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead/'  which  must  be 
accounted  as  contemporary  with  the  hymn  just  quoted,  the 
conflict  of  Horos  with  Set  is  expressly  mentioned,1  and 
upon  the  sarcophagus  of  Mentuhotep,  which  dates  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  Horos  is  spoken  of  as 
the  avenger  of  his  father.  On  an  inscription  of  the  time 
of  King  Chufu  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  Osiris  is  called  lord 
of  Eusta  or  Boseti,  that  is,  of  the  world  of  the  dead,  and 
"Horos  the  Conqueror"  is  an  appellation  already  very 
common  in  those  days.  Indeed,  in  that  portion  of  the 
"  Book  of  the  Dead  "  quoted  in  the  preceding  chapter,  and 
therefore  in  the  most  ancient  text  of  all,  which  was  already 
in  existence  in  the  time  of  the  earliest  dynasties,  we  read 
that  there  a  place  of  battle  was  made  ready  for  the  gods. 
In  other  passages,  too,  in  the  "Book  of  the  Dead,"  mention 
is  made  of  the  laments  of  Isis,  of  her  vigil  on  the  night  of 
the  burial,  and  of  the  tears  poured  forth  by  her  and  her 
sister  Nephthys.  The  lamentations  of  the  two  sisters  have 
even  been  discovered  in  a  Theban  papyrus.  "  Come  back," 
it  says,  "  come  back,  god  Panu,  come  back.  For  they  who 
were  thy  foes  are  here  no  more.  Ah !  fair  helpmate,  come 
back,  that  thou  mayest  behold  me  thy  sister,  by  whom 
thou  art  beloved ;  and  thou  drawest  not  nigh  to  me  ; 
Ah,  beautiful  youth,  come  back !  come  back !  I  behold 
thee  not,  my  heart  is  grieved  for  thee,  my  eyes  search 
for  thee.  I  cast  my  eyes  around  (?)  that  thee,  that  thee  I 
may  behold  .  .  .  the  radiant  one.  Come  to  thy  beloved, 
blessed  Unnefer,  come  to  thy  sister,  come  to  thy  wife, 
god  Urtuhet,  come  to  the  mistress  of  thy  house.  Am  I 
not  thy  sister  ?  I  am  thy  mother,  and  thou  dost  not  draw 
nigh  to  me ;  the  face  of  the  gods  and  of  the  children  of 
men  is  turned  towards  thee  while  they  bewail  thee,  at  the 
time  when  they  see  me  as  I  wail  because  of  thee,  as  I 
weep  and  cry  unto  heaven  that  thou  mightest  hear  my 
supplication,  for  I  am  thy  sister,  by  whom  thou  wast 
beloved  upon  earth.     Never  didst  thou  love  another  than 

1  Book  of  the  Dead,  xvii.  17,  glosses. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  43 

me  tliy  sister  !  "  In  the  same  way  Nephthys,  too,  laments, 
"  Ah  !  lordly  king,  come  back,  let  thy  heart  rejoice,  for  all 
they  who  persecuted  thee  are  here  no  more.  Thy  sisters 
stand  beside  thy  bier,  they  bewail  thee  and  shed  tears. 
People  turn  (?)  thee  round  on  thy  bier  that  thou  mayest 
behold  their  beauty.  Oh  speak  to  us,  king  and  our 
lord ! "  i 

Osiris,  nevertheless,  according  to  the  old  monuments, 
comes  back  on  earth  no  more.  His  soul  is  indeed  united 
again  to  his  body  in  the  mystic  place  Tanen,  a  ceremony 
in  which  all  the  gods  of  his  circle  take  part ;  his  parents, 
Seb  and  Nu,  his  sisters  Isis  and  Nephthys,  Thot  and  Horos, 
and  above  all  Shu  and  Tafnu,  who  watch  over  his  heart 
and  punish  Set.2  Osiris,  however,  remains  in  the  invisible 
world  of  the  departed  or  justified,  while  his  soul  alone,  as 
the  constellation  of  Orion,  is  displayed  in  full  glory  in  the 
heavens,  just  as  the  soul  of  Isis  shines  forth  in  that  of  Sirius. 

Such  is  the  tenor  of  the  myths,  of  which,  from  Plutarch's 
time  down  to  our  own,  various  interpretations  have  been 
given,  though  in  truth  one  alone  is  admissible.  If,  first, 
we  study  the  nature  of  the  various  gods  who  here  play 
their  parts,  and  if,  especially,  we  set  them  in  the  light 
which  the  old  monuments  can  throw  upon  them,  the  myth 
itself  will  be  easily  understood. 

Osiris  is  a  sun-god.  This  is  indubitable  and  was  per- 
ceived also  by  the  ancients,  although  even  at  an  early 
period  he  was  made  a  god  of  the  moon,  a  Nile-god,  or  even 
a  god  of  wine  like  Bacchus.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however, 
that  all  these  significations  are  really  identical.  The  Nile, 
source  of  the  fertility  of  the  Egyptian  soil,  and  wine,  which 
imparts  fresh  life,  corresponded  on  earth  to  the  heavenly 
beverage  called  by  the  Aryans  soma  or  haoma,  and  by  the 
Greeks  nectar,  together  with  ambrosia  the  food  of  im- 
mortality, while  the  moon  was  looked  upon  as  the  reser- 
voir or  fountain-head  of  these  celestial  waters.     In  short, 

1  Dr.H.Brugsch,  Die  Adouisklage  2  Papyrus  magique,  No.  825  Brit, 
tind  das  Linoslied,  p.  22  el  seq.  Mus.,  in  the  Rev.  Arch.  1863,  p.  125. 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

if  Osiris  is  rightly  regarded  as  a  sun-god,  it  is  the  sun  at 
night  which  he  represents,  the  sun  dead  but  risen  again, 
and  hence  he  is  the  p:od  of  the  life  eternal  "  of  the  length 
of  time  or  of  eternity,"  as  the  Egyptians  say,  and  to  him 
belongs  by  right  all  that  gives  or  has  life. 

The  signification  of  his  name  Asar,  As-iri,  which  Lauth 
not  long  ago  proposed  to  translate  "  son  of  the  earth,"  is 
indeed  uncertain,1  but  that  he  cannot  be  other  than  a  sun- 
god  is  evident  if  we  notice  his  peculiar  relation  to  Horos, 
the  sun-god,  who  at  one  time  is  identified  with  him,  and 
then  is  called  his  father,  and  oftenest  of  all  his  son. 
Osiris  is  also  designated  as  son  of  Seb,  the  god  of  the 
vearth,  and  of  Nu,  goddess  of  the  heavenly  ocean,  as  grand- 
son of  Ea,  the  sun-god  par  excellence,  who  is  called  first  in 
his  circle,  the  father  of  fathers,  and  of  whom  it  is  said  that 
he  is  united  with  Osiris  in  Suten-se-nen.  This  conclusion, 
that  Osiris  is  a  sun-god,  is  confirmed  by  a  number  of 
expressions  used  regarding  him.  In  the  hymns,  his 
accession  to  the  throne  of  his  father  is  compared  to  the 
rising  of  the  sun,  and  it  is  even  said  of  him  in  so  many 
words :  "  He  glitters  on  the  horizon,  he  sends  out  rays  of 
light  from  his  double  feather  and  inundates  the  world 
with  it,  as  the  sun  from  out  of  the  highest  heaven."  Like 
the  sun  he  is  called  in  the  sacred  songs,  Lord  of  the 
length  of  time.  Yet  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  say 
that  Osiris  signifies  the  sun.  He  is  the  divine  beino-  who 
reveals  himself  in  the  sun.  One  of  his  usual  appellations 
is  "mysterious  soul  of  the  Lord  of  the  disk,"  or  simply 
-  "  soul  of  the  sun."  He  is  thus  the  soul  of  the  sun,  not 
dying  when  it  dies,  its  ever-abiding  vital  force,  which  at 
nights  is  displayed  in  the  glittering  constellation  of  Orion, 
and  in  the  morning  is  united  again  to  the  revivified  body 

1  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  occurs  so  often  in  the  kings'  names), 
hidden  or  under-world  heaven,  of  and  that  the  signification  of  the 
which  among  the  Egyptians  Osiris  is  '  word  p^X  =  tobe  good)  corresponds 
lord  and  originally  also  a  personi-  to  Osiris'  surname,  Unnefer,  "the 
fication,  is  called  among  the  Assyro-  good  being." 
Babylonians,  ashru  or  ashar  (which 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  45 

of  the  sun.  He  is  also  more  definitely  this,  in  a  special 
character.  The  operation  of  the  sun  is  twofold,  benefi- 
cent and  terrible;  it  quickens  or  it  destroys  life.  The 
Greeks  united  both  characteristics  in  Phoebus  Apollo.  The 
Egyptians  kept  them  separate.  They  called  Osiris  Un- 
nefer,  that  is,  the  good  being  representing  the  beneficent 
power  of  the  sun  that  triumphs  always  over  the  powers  of 
darkness,  and  cannot  be  annihilated  by  those  injurious 
powers  that  are  also  exercised  by  the  sun.  That  is  the 
original  physical  signification  of  Osiris,  always  evidently 
betrayed  in  words  and  symbols  even  after  his  moral 
significance  came  more  into  the  foreground.  Becoming 
ever  more  and  more  detached  from  nature  and  exalted 
above  her,  he  grew  by  degrees  to  be  Lord  of  the  universe 
(Neb  ter),  to  whom  everything  owed  its  origin,  who  formed 
the  sun,  and  who  makes  it  rise  and  set,  the  Lord  of  life 
without  whom  nothing  can  live.  How  these  conceptions 
arose  out  of  the  original  natural  one  is  self-evident,  and  it 
is  equally  clear  how  he  soon  became  the  type  of  the  good 
man,  of  the  human  soul  which  is  obliged  to  carry  on  a 
conflict  similar  to  his  against  the  powers  of  death,  and 
which  finds  in  his  victory  a  guarantee  of  its  own  triumph, 
in  his  rising  again  a  pledge  of  its  own  immortality.  From 
the  most  ancient  times  accordingly,  we  find  the  dead,  both 
men  and  women,  represented  as  identifying  themselves 
with  him,  their  everlasting  ideal. 

We  have  "iven  no  more  than  the  outlines  of  the  con- 

o 

ception  of  Osiris  as  entertained  by  the  Egyptians.  Were 
we  to  come  down  to  details  and  to  attend  to  slight  varia- 
tions, we  should  be  lost  in  an  ocean  of  symbolism  and 
mysticism.  As  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  prevalence 
of  Osiris-worship  in  Egypt,  a  number  of  local  legends  have 
been  incorporated  with  his  myths.  To  this  widespread 
devotion  likewise  he  owes  his  manifold  names,  of  which 
the  147th  chapter  of  the  "Book  of  the  Dead,"  to  give  one 
instance,  mentions  no  less  than  a  hundred.  To  the  same 
cause  may  be  attributed  the  sacred  metamorphoses  that 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

he,  according  to  the  old  texts,  underwent,  and  the  mys- 
terious forms  he  assumed.  It  would  appear  that  so  soon 
as  his  worship  had  established  itself  in  any  one  place, 
Osiris  took  the  form  of  the  deity  whose  ancient  seat  it 
was,  and  the  sacred  animal  of  that  particular  town  or 
district  was  consecrated  to  him.  Thus,  at  Heliopolis  and 
at  Abydos,  he  is  represented  as  the  migratory  bird  Bennu, 
which  appears  to  have  been  originally  a  form  of  the 
Heliopolitan  god  Ea.  After  the  amalgamation  of  Osiris 
and  Ea  worship  this  form  was  bestowed  upon  the  former 
as  well.1 

At  Memphis,  among  other  forms  he  appears  to  have 
assumed  that  of  a  certain  species  of  ape,  and  also  that  of 
a  nechta,  i.e.,  a  mighty  one,  a  giant  of  seven  cubits,  who 
was  concealed  in  a  chest  eight  cubits  in  height.2  It  was 
most  likely  at  Memphis,  too,  that  he  was  imaged  as  a  pillar 
beginning  in  the  lowest  and  ending  in  the  highest  heaven, 
a  conception  which  is  undoubtedly  referred  to  in  that 
feature  of  the  myth,  as  related  by  Plutarch,  where  the 
King  of  By  bios  causes  a  pillar  to  be  made  in  his  palace 
out  of  the  tree  which  had  grown  around  the  sarcophagus 
of  Osiris.  In  fact,  we  possess  delineations  of  Osiris  as 
well  as  of  Ptah  answering  to  this  description.  On  a  post 
upon  which  is  graven  a  human  countenance,  and  which  is 
covered  with  gay  clothing,  stands  the  so-called  Tat  pillar, 
entirely  made  up  of  a  kind  of  superimposed  capitals, 
one  of  which  has  a  rude  face  scratched  upon  it,  intended 
no  doubt  to  represent  the  shining  sun.  On  the  top  of 
the  pillar  is  placed  the  complete  headdress  of  Osiris,  the 
ram's  horns,  the  sun,  the  ureus-adders,  the  double  feather, 
all  emblems  of  light  and  of  sovereignty,  and  which  in 
my  judgment  must  here  have  been  intended  to  repre- 
sent the  highest  heaven.3     The  Tat  pillar  is  the  symbol  of 


1  See  above,  p.  28,  nt.  1.  and  C,  2d  Series,  Suppt.  PI.  25  and 

2  Chabas,  Pap.   mag.  Harris,  p.  33,   No.   5.      Mariette,  Abydos,  I., 
116.  PI.  16. 

:i  See  the  plate  in  Wilkinson,  M. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  47 

durability,  immutability.  This  representation  of  Osiris, 
which  its  rude  and  simple  character  without  trace  of 
art  proves  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  ancient,  must 
apparently  be  held  to  be  symbolical  of  him  as  "  Lord  of 
the  length  of  time  or  of  eternity."  Elsewhere  again  he 
was  a  ncmma  or  dwarf  with  two  heads,  one  of  a  sparrow- 
hawk,  the  other  human,  very  evidently  a  symbol  of  his 
twofold  being  as  sun-god  and  type  or  king  of  men.1  All 
these  varied  transformations,  which  are  found  in  all  mytho- 
logies without  exception,  are  nothing  but  the  ancient  forms 
of  a  deity  which  in  later  times,  after  the  deity  had  come 
to  be  represented  usually  in  human  shape,  were  regarded 
as  being  forms  he  could  still  assume  at  pleasure.  Here, 
as  in  other  mythologies,  these  various  forms  have  given 
rise  to  or  have  helped  to  embellish  all  sorts  of  legends. 
In  the  Osirian  myths  they  have  been  employed  chiefly  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  conflict  with  Set,  who  in 
seeking  the  body  of  his  brother  is  again  and  again  mocked 
by  finding  himself  face  to  face  with  a  totally  different 
shape.  Set  likewise,  as  might  be  expected,  transforms 
himself  into  the  shape  of  his  sacred  animals — into  that  of 
the  crocodile,  for  example.  In  this  respect,  however,  he  is 
outdone  by  Osiris,  who  by  this  device  constantly  succeeds 
in  escaping  persecution ;  or,  to  express  it  differently,  the 
symbolism  and  mythology  of  the  good  sun-god  was  in 
Egypt  infinitely  richer  than  that  of  the  violent  evil  one, 
and  his  worship  prevailed  much  more  extensively  than 
that  of  the  latter. 

Eor  I  venture  to  consider  it  as  certain  that  Set,  the 
enemy  and  brother  of  Osiris  or  of  the  more  ancient  Horos, 
is  likewise  a  sun-god,  although  Plutarch  says  that  those 
who  consider  Typhon  is  the  sun  are  unworthy  of  being 
listened  to.     In   spite   of   his   unamiable    character   and 

1  The  sparrow-hawk,   as  is  well  lordship,  in  the  dwarf's  hand,  and 

known,  is  in  Egypt  the  emblem  of  the  sun  circle  with  the  double  feather 

the  sun.     The  emblem  is  made  still  between  the  two  heads, 
plainer  by   the   scourge,    token   of 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

hideous  shape,  he  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in 
the  Egyptian  pantheon,  for  he  has  had  a  peculiar  history. 
In  turn  revered  and  hated,  invoked  and  persecuted,  he  was 
at  last  so  much  detested  that  his  very  name,  where  it 
occurs  on  the  monuments,  was  wherever  possible  expunged 
or  chiselled  out.  At  no  time  was  he  regarded  as  a  good 
deity.  Even  in  the  oldest  myths  he  is  the  great  enemy 
and  adversary  of  Horos,  and  plays  the  unenviable  part  of 
traitor  and  murderer ;  and  though  finally  he  is  not  actually 
killed,  he  is  nevertheless  overcome  and  severely  chastised, 
all  which  is  not  calculated  to  increase  the  reputation  even 
of  a  divine  being.  Yet,  though  never  a  beneficent  god,  he 
was  not  detested  in  ancient  times.  He  possessed  temples 
and  was  worshipped,  no  doubt  mostly  out  of  fear.  At  a 
relatively  late  period  warlike  kings  still  named  themselves 
after  him.  Homage  was  paid  to  him  in  Lower  as  well  as 
in  Upper  Egypt,  of  which  he  was  the  special  god ;  and 
the  kings  who  united  both  these  countries  under  their 
sceptre  were  looked  upon  as  the  incarnate  Horos  and 
Set,  as  being  images  of  the  one  as  well  as  of  the  other. 
They  are  frequently  depicted,  even  in  comparatively 
recent  centuries,  as  standing  betwixt  these  two  gods,  as 
anointed  by  them  with  life  and  power,  or  as  receiving 
instruction  from  both,  from  Set  no  less  than  Horos,  in 
the  art  of  handling  their  weapons. 

It  is,  indeed,  the  case  that  Set  received  more  homage 
from  foreign  peoples  who  came  into  contact  with  Egypt 
than  from  genuine  Egyptians.  The  Shepherd  Kings, 
or  at  least  one  of  them,  selected  him  from  among  all 
the  gods  of  Egypt  as  the  object  of  exclusive  worship. 
In  the  south,  at  Ombos,  which  must  be  reckoned  as 
in  Nubia,  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  local  deity,  and 
derived  from  that  town  his  most  usual  designation.  He 
is  also  not  un frequently  called  the  god  of  the  negroes. 
Was  he  then  perhaps,  as  has  sometimes  been  asserted,  a 
foreign  ^od.  one  of  the  so-called  Semitic  gods,  introduced 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  49 

from  Asia  ?  The  truth  is  precisely  the  contrary  of  this. 
From  the  most  remote  antiquity  Set  is  one  of  the  Osirian 
circle,  and  is  thus  a  genuine  Egyptian  deity.  His  place 
in  the  ranks  of  these  gods  is  clearly  defined  ;  he  constantly 
stands,  even  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  first  dynasties, 
betwixt  Isis  and  Horos,  with  his  wife  Nephthys,  forming 
thus  along  with  her  the  complementary  pair  to  Osiris  and 
Isis.  Even  strictly  Osirian  kings,  who  neglected  other 
gods,  such  as  Ptah,  worshipped  Set.  Among  these  were 
Chufu,  Chafra,  and  Pepi.  In  Lower  Egypt  he  was  origi- 
nally worshipped  at  Memphis  only,  the  royal  residence  of 
the  Upper  Egyptian  kings,  and  under  the  fifth  dynasty, 
which  was  distinguished  by  the  orthodoxy  of  its  Osirianism, 
he  possessed  a  temple  in  that  town.  His  being  called  the 
god  of  the  Nubians  and  Negroes,  who  adopted  the  Egyptian 
civilisation,  and  with  it  the  Egyptian  mythology,  must  be 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  gods  whose  worship  was 
most  popular  there  had  more  in  common  with  his  character 
than  with  that  of  Osiris.  When  the  Egyptians  established 
themselves  in  Nubia,  and  looked  through  the  list  of  their 
gods  for  one  to  whom  this  new  portion  of  their  kingdom 
might  appear  peculiarly  to  belong,  none  was  found  so  suit- 
able as  Set.  It  was  the  same  with  the  Hyksos,  the  char- 
acter of  whose  god,  beyond  doubt  warlike  and  devastating, 
allowed  of  his  being  identified  most  easily  with  Set,  though 
both  at  that  time  and  ever  afterwards  he  remained  the 
special  god  of  Upper  Egypt.  This  high  favour  in  which 
he  stood  with  foreign  conquerors  may  perhaps  have 
contributed  to  make  the  Egyptians  regard  him  with 
steadily  lessening  reverence ;  it  is  at  any  rate  certain  that 
various  reasons  combined  to  bring  about  the  persecution 
to  which  at  a  later  time  he  was  exposed,  and  the  erasure 
of  his  name.  In  the  first  place,  growing  civilisation  and 
the  softening  of  manners  made  the  people,  and  the  culti- 
vated priesthood  in  particular,  zealously  hostile  to  the 
service  of  a  god  so  barbarous,  just  as  in  Israel  we  see  the 
prophets  entering  the  lists  to  combat  the  worship  of  Moloch; 


5o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

secondly,  there  was  the  influence  of  Persian  doctrine,  with 
its  dualism,  for  it  is  remarkable  that  the  aversion  to  Set 
became  conspicuous  just  after  the  time  of  the  Persian 
conquest;  and  lastly,  the  influence  of  the  Greeks,  who 
could  as  little  tolerate  the  gloomy  death-god  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile  as  in  their  native  country,  where  they  always 
looked  with  a  certain  degree  of  abhorrence  on  Hades  and 
his  temples.  This  influence,  however,  was  not  felt  till  a 
much  later  period.  In  remote  antiquity  there  can  be  no 
doubt  Set  was  a  sun-god.  This  is  evident  from  his  being 
properly  the  complement,  not  the  adversary  only,  of  Horos 
the  sun-god.  Like  him,  Set  is  found  on  the  deck  of  the 
bark  of  the  sun,  ready  to  ward  off  the  serpent  of  darkness, 
with  which,  by  a  curious  fatality,  he  was  one  day  destined 
to  be  identified.  Like  Horos,  he  is  god  of  war  and  execu- 
tioner in  the  under-world ;  and  he  would  never  have  been 
raised,  as  god  of  Upper  Egypt,  to  the  level  of  Horos,  god  of 
Lower  Egypt,  had  he  not  corresponded  to  him  in  general 
significance,  however  much  he  differed  from  him  in  charac- 
ter. As  sun-god  he  is  sometimes  called  the  great  lord  of 
heaven,  and  the  spy.1  In  contrast  to  Horos,  the  sun-hero 
from  whom  proceed  life  and  fertility,  and  who  is  to  be 
dreaded  by  none  save  those  who  are  friends  of  darkness, 
and  in  contrast  especially  to  Osiris,  Unnefer,  the  good 
being,  the  good  nature-power,  the  beneficent  though  con- 
cealed sun-god,  his  position  was  just  like  that  of  Melek, 
the  fire-king,  the  severe  Semitic  god,  who  was  worshipped 
in  Juda  also,  in  contrast  to  the  luxurious  life-giving 
Canaanite  Baal ;  or  like  Qiva  in  contrast  to  Vishnu.  He 
was  the  personification  of  the  sun's  terrible  desolating 
power,  of  the  sun  as  devouring  fire,  the  god  of  extermi- 
nating war,  with  all  its  terrors.  Hence  he  speedily  was 
made  god  of  death.  Elevated  soon  a  little  above  nature, 
and  conceived  of  as  more  human  in  form,  he  grew  to  be 
not  only  the  fell  adversary  of  Horos,  the  lord  of  light,  but 
also  the  being  who  causes  all  that  is  evil  in  nature — 

1  See  Brugsch,  Zeits.  d.  Morgenl.  Gesellschaft,  vi.  253  ct  seq. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  51 

earthquakes,  scorching  heat,  tempests,  thunder  and  light- 
ning, pestilential  vapours  that  pollute  the  air  and  the 
water,  and  even  mount  up  towards  the  moon,  in  order  to 
make  her  and  all  that  glitters  in  heaven  dim  and  dark.  It 
is  he  who  wounds,  or  puts  out,  or  swallows  up  the  one  eye 
of  Horos,  after  which  it  is  handed  over  to  Ea,  the  sun-god 
highest  in  rank,  that  he  may  heal  it.  This,  as  Plutarch 
correctly  explains,  is  a  reference  to  a  total  or  partial  eclipse 
of  the  moon.1  All  plagues  (ncshni)  proceed  from  Set;2 
and,  accordingly,  the  animals  sacred  to  him  are  beasts  of 
prey,  and  consequently  unclean  animals — the  hippopota- 
mus, the  crocodile,  swine,  and  the  monster  with  stiff  ears, 
peculiar  snout,  and  tail  erect,  which  is  the  hieroglyph  of 
this  god.  Finally,  after  having  been  completely  dissociated 
from  nature,  apparently,  as  I  said,  by  Persian  influence  in 
the  first  place,  he  became  the  evil  principle  in  the  creation, 
and  in  the  moral  world  as  well.  It  was  at  this  stage  that 
his  name  began  to  be  removed  and  his  images  supplanted 
by  those  of  Thot  and  Horos.  Even  on  the  tomb  of  Seti  I., 
father  of  Eamses  II.  (Sesostris),  the  king's  name  was  altered 
into  Osiri.3 

The  lot  of  his  rival  Horos,  usually  Osiris'  son,  and 
avenger  of  his  father,  was  totally  different,  for  through- 
out the  course  of  centuries  he  remained  one  of  the  most 
honoured  of  the  gods  of  Egypt.     In  a  sense,  it  may  be 

1  See  Zeits.  für  Aeg.  Sprache  u.  the  hippopotamus,  Set's  sacred  ani- 
Alterthumskunde,  1868,  p.  33.  The  mal,  and  the  sacred  name  of  the 
B.  of  the  D.  (chap,  xvii.,  glosses  17  town  is  derived  from  it.  In  any 
and  1 8)  expressly  says  that  the  eclipse  case  the  Greeks  must  have  got  the 
of  the  moon  takes  place  during  the  name  Typhon  from  the  Phoenicians, 
conflict  between  Horos  and  Set.  who  identified  Set  tebhu  with  their 

2  See  ibid.,  1S68,  p.  27.  god  of  storms  (Ziphon).     Much  has 

3  The  name  of  Set  is  not  yet  tho-  been  done  to  explain  the  myths  and 
roughly  explained.  It  is  perhaps  history  of  this  god  by  W.  Pleyte,  in 
connected  with  sat  =  flame,  and  with  his  "  Religion  des  Pré-israélites  ;  re- 
sati  =  ray  of  the  sun  and  phallos.  cherches  sur  le  dieu  Set,"  and  in 
The  Greeks  called  him  Typhon,  a  his  "Lettre  a  M.  Th.  Devéria." 
name  which,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  Comp.  also  the  smaller  work  of  this 
is  to  be  discovered  in  the  Egyptian  author,  "Le  dieu  Set  dans  la  barque 
Tebku,  the  god  of  Teb,  where  special  du  soleil." 

homage  was  paid  to  him.      Teb  is 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

said  of  him  as  of  Baal  (as  regards  whom,  proof  of  the 
assertion  we  make  will  be  found  in  Book  III.  of  this 
work),  that  his  name  was  not  so  much  that  of  a  definite 
deity,  as  the  common  title  given  to  a  particular  class  of 
cods.  In  support  of  this  opinion,  we  can  adduce  the  fol- 
lowing facts :  we  rarely  find  the  name  of  Horos  used  without 
attribute  or  epithet ;  nearly  every  locality  has  its  particular 
Horos,  designated  by  a  special  surname :— thus  Harhut 
at  Edfu,  Harsamto  and  Ahi  at  Edfu  and  at  Dendera, 
Harmachu,  he  who  is  Ra,  Harkamutef,  he  who  is  Chem 
and  Harka,  the  young  one,  son  of  Chem  and  of  Ament,  at 
Thebes,  &c, — in  fact,  one  frequently  sees  several  different 
Horos  deities  represented  side  by  side  on  the  monuments  : 
moreover,  some  divine  beings,  like  the  star  Sirius  (Har- 
sapd),  have  the  title  of  Horos  bestowed  upon  them  when 
they  are  masculine  ;  and  in  later  times  at  least,  the  name 
of  Horos  in  the  plural  is  always  used  as  synonymous  with 
the  nuteru,  the  gods.  The  signification  of  the  name  of 
Horos  accords  perfectly  with  this  use  of  it.  Har,  or  Her, 
means  really  the  most  exalted,  the  Highest,  the  Lord, 
accordingly  the  principal  divinity,  the  god  considered  as 
king  of  the  country. 

Three  classes  of  Horos  gods  are  to  be  distinguished : 
the  first  includes  Horos  the  old  (Hor-ur)  brothers  of  Osiris 
and  of  Ka ;  the  great  Harmachis  (Harmachu,  Horos  on 
the  horizon),  of  Heliopolis  ;  Horos  Amun,  and  the  ithy- 
phallic  god  Hor  Chem.  The  second  is  composed  of  the 
various  sons  of  the  preceding,  in  particular,  the  famous 
son  of  Isis  (Har-se-ise),  the  avenger  of  his  father,  just  as  is 
Har-hut,  the  god  of  the  winged  bark  of  the  sun  at  Edfu, 
the  executioner  of  the  judgments  of  Osiris  in  the  under 
world,  the  king  of  the  kings  after  whom,  correctly  speak- 
ing, no  king  reigns,  since  all  the  kings  are  only  his  lieuten- 
ants. Lastly,  the  third  class  is  that  made  up  of  the  infant 
Horos  gods  (Har-pe-chruti).  Ahi  and  Samtoti,the  youth- 
ful cods  represented  in  the  flower  of  the  lotus,  and  which 
are  very  modern,  having  been,  as  Dr.   Pleyte   believes, 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  53 

borrowed  from  India  in  the  centuries  immediately  before 
our  era,  belong  to  this  category. 

As  god  of  the  visible  sun,  he  is  father  and  brother  as 
well  as  son  of  Osiris,  for  in  truth,  the  sun  at  night  may 
equally  well  be  called  a  son  of  the  sun  that  shone  the  day 
before,  as  father  of  the  sun  that  rises  next  day.  Thus  both 
sun-gods  may  be  also  conceived  of  as  a  pair  of  brothers, 
and  this  occurs  not  ^infrequently  in  other  mythologies. 
Horos  is  accordingly  as  Har-oer,  Horos  the  great,  the 
elder,  son  of  Seb  like  Osiris,  and  husband  of  Isis  or 
Hathor  ;  he  is  found,  however,  most  often  as  son  of  Osiris, 
and  Isis  or  Hathor,  and  is  called  Har-pe-chruti,  the 
infant  Horos,  the  young,  scarcely  born  sun  at  its  first 
rising  again  in  the  morning.  The  Egyptians  did  not  find 
these  conceptions  inconsistent  with  each  other ;  they  felt, 
on  the  contrary,  that  the  elder  and  the  younger  Horos 
were  one  and  the  same,  that  the  new-born  sun,  though 
apparently  another  than  that  they  had  seen  die,  was  not 
in  reality  a  different  one,  and  they  expressed  this  feeling 
of  their  identity  in  the  mythological  paradox,  "Horos, 
(or  Min,  or  Chem),  husband  of  his  mother."  Horos  also 
is  a  warrior  god  who,  standing  on  the  deck  of  the  sun-bark, 
contends  with  the  serpent  Apap,  the  demon  of  darkness, 
or,  in  the  character  of  avenger,  with  his  father's  enemy 
Set.  At  one  moment  he  is  seen  brandishing  his  spear,  at 
another  he  hurls  his  trident  at  the  snout  of  the  hippopo- 
tamus, one  of  Set's  disguises,1  and  again  he  is  armed  with 
a  sword  ready  to  behead  the  wicked  upon  the  scaffold 
(ncmma)  in  the  kingdom  of  the  dead.  But,  notwithstand- 
ing this,  he,  equally  with  Osiris,  is  a  good  deity  who  fights 
against  darkness  only,  and  the  pious  need  not  be  afraid  of 
him.  Formidable  to  his  enemies,  the  enemies  of  his  be- 
loved Egypt,  for  his  sparrow-hawk  always  hovers  aloft  over 
the  head  of  the  Egyptian  kings  as  they  go  forth  to  battle, 
he  is  yet  a  guardian  to  his  worshippers,  and  speaks  as  a 

Zeits  für  Aeg.  Sprackeu.  Alterthk.  1S68,  p.  iS. 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

father  to  the  king,  whom  he  calls  his  beloved  son.1  "  I 
make  you,"  thus  he  speaks  to  the  king — "  I  make  you  a 
terror  to  evil-doers,  and  spit  before  you  on  the  hearts 
of  your  enemies." 2  But  he  is  likewise  the  beneficent 
creator  of  the  full  harvest,  the  lord  of  the  grain.  His 
beauty,  especially  that  of  his  countenance,  is  frequently 
celebrated.  Hence  he  is  represented  as  the  Sphinx  (hu), 
whose  face,  turned  eastwards  under  its  broad  projecting 
head-dress,  is  the  radiant  sun,  and  whose  body  in  the  form 
of  a  lion  is  emblematic  of  his  divine  strength.  As  the 
wunged  sun's  disk — a  representation  found  in  Egypt  as 
well  as  in  Babylon  and  in  Assyria,  from  which  latter 
country  it  was  introduced  into  Persia — he  is  named  Hut, 
the  great  god,  the  lord  of  heaven ;  and  he  imparts  "  life, 
vital  power,  long  life,  health,  and  all  good  fortune,  as  the 
sun  in  eternity."  In  this  form  he  was  worshipped  even 
in  the  most  remote  antiquity,  especially  at  Edfu  (Hut).3 

It  would  be  inaccurate  to  regard  Horos  when  without 
any  attribute  as  being  the  god  of  the  sun,  and  it  would  be 
more  inaccurate  still  to  mistake  him  for  the  sun  itself 
deified.  He  is  very  far  from  being  identical  with  Ba,  whose 
name  is  oftenest  used  to  designate  the  sun.  The  sun  and 
the  moon  were  called  the  eyes  of  Horos.  He  must,  there- 
fore, be  regarded  as  the  god  of  the  light,  the  token  of  life. 
The  conflict  with  Set,  in  which  he  interposes  as  avenger 
of  his  father  Osiris,  or  as  Marshal  of  the  armies  of  his 
father  Ba-Harmachis,  has  furnished  an  inexhaustible 
subject  to  the  poets,  painters,  and  sculptors  of  Egypt. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  describe  and  explain  the  myth  as 
it  has  been  found  delineated  at  Edfu  in  a  series  of  pictures, 
and  since  its  discovery  made  generally  known  through 

1  Thus  in   the  inscription  on  the  father  Haremchu."   Brugsch,  Reise- 

sphinx  at   Gizeh,  "The  majesty  of  berichte  aus  ^Egypten,  p.  335. 

this     god     speaks    with     his    own  2  Duemichen     Bauurkunde    von 

mouth;  like  a  father  with  his  son,  Dendera,  p.  13. 

so     he     speaks  :     Behold    me,    my  3  De  Rouge  in  the  Rev.  Archseol. 

beloved     son     Thotmes     (Thotmes  1S61,  iv.  19b. 
IV.,  eighteenth  dynasty),  I  am  thy 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS. 


55 


the  admirable  publication  of  M.  E.  Naville.  In  its 
essence  it  was  unquestionably  a  nature-myth,  but  of  the 
most  exalted  kind,  in  which  the  actors  are  not  simply 
natural  phenomena  deified,  but  are  already  nature-spirits, 
a  sort  of  abstraction  and  personification  of  the  powers  of 
nature.  Of  this  kind  is  the  mythic  conception  of  the 
conflict  between  the  light  and  the  darkness,  between  life 
and  death.  Day  and  night  succeeding  each  other,  the  sweet 
revivifying  warmth  of  spring  followed  by  the  scorching 
heats  of  summer,  all  contributed  features  to  the  picture. 

From  a  remote  period,  however,  this  nature-myth  was  ^ 
for  the  Egyptians  the  mere  outward  form  of  a  dogma, 
which  was  the  very  foundation  of  the  faith  they  cherished, 
faith  in  the  triumph  of  light  and  life  over  darkness  and 
death,  faith  in  the  eternal  order.  They  found  a  pledge 
of  this  faith  in  the  changing  phenomena  of  nature,  and  in 
the  regular  succession  of  the  kings,  the  representatives  of 
Horos  on  earth. 

An  historical  application  of  the  myth  was  made,  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  in  very  early  times.  The  struggle  main- 
tained by  the  kings  in  their  effort  to  unite  all  the  divisions 
of  Egypt  under  one  sceptre,  the  wars  carried  on  against 
barbarian  invaders,  or  against  foreign  powers,  were  all 
referred  back  to  the  celestial  drama.  There  is  to  be  found, 
however,  no  particular  and  definite  historical  fact  under- 
lying the  myth,  it  simply  expresses  the  lasting  antagonism 
between  the  pure  Egyptian  race  and  foreign  races.  Yet, 
while  this  is  the  case,  we  must  not  suppose  the  origin  of 
the  myth  is  to  be  found  in  this  struggle  :  the  truth  is,  that 
the  myth  was,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  so  modified  as  to 
reproduce  the  features  of  this  national  struggle. 

Side  by  side  with  the  three  sun-gods  stand  three  god- 
desses who,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  differ  from  each 
other  even  less  than  the  three  gods  to  whom  they  are 
assigned  as  wives  and  sisters.  These  are  Isis,  Nephthys, 
and  Hathor. 

Isis  with   a   thousand   names,  as  she  was  afterwards 


A 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

called,  enjoyed  in  the  later  centuries  of  the  Egyptian 
kingdom,  especially  under  the  Ptolemies,  greater  honours 
than  all  the  other  gods,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of 
Hathor.  It  was  then  that  the  beautiful,  much  frequented, 
and  often  described  temple,  situated  on  the  island  of 
Philak,  was  dedicated  to  her.  At  that  time,  too,  her 
worship  found  its  way  to  other  peoples,  so  that  she  with 
her  little  Horos  on  her  bosom  became  the  model  for  the 
Madonna  col  bambino.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to 
prove  from  this  that  her  rank  was  higher  than  that  of 
her  husband,1  an  idea  that,  at  least  as  regards  the  most 
ancient,  purely  Egyptian  period,  is  utterly  untenable. 
In  ancient  times  the  place  she  occupied  was  rather 
in  the  background,  and  before  long  she  was  cast  into 
the  shade  by  other  goddesses,  such  as  Hathor,  Mut  of 
Thebes,  Sechet  of  Memphis,  and  others  ;  or  else  was  wor- 
shipped merely  in  combination  with  these.  Yet  we  know 
with  certainty  that  she  already  had,  even  under  the 
earliest  dynasties,  temples  of  her  own.  Her  name  (As) 
gives  no  clue  to  her  nature,  for  whether  this  is  under- 
stood to  mean  "  the  ancient,"  or  whether  we  suppose,  as  I 
think  is  much  to  be  preferred,  that  it  signifies  "  the 
exalted,  the  worthy  of  being  revered,"  2  both  meanings  are 
too  general  to  give  us  any  information  about  the  nature 
of  this  deity.  After  their  usual  fashion,  the  Greeks  have 
compared  her  to  some  half-dozen  of  their  own  goddesses, 
but  especially  to  Demeter,  Persephone,  and  Hera,  a  clear 
proof  that  she  is  not  to  be  altogether  identified  with  any 
one  among  them  all.  Still,  these  comparisons  are  not 
quite  without  foundation.  As  wife  of  Osiris,  the  god  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  or,  to  take  the  name  given  to 
her  most  frequently,  as  "  Ptoyal  consort  of  Unnefer,"  she  is 

1  This  is  asserted  by  Sharpe,  to  has  not  the  chair  for  determina- 
Hist.  of  Egypt,  i.  23.  tive.     With  this  determinative,   at 

2  Mariette  (Rev.  Archaeol.  1866,  least  with  a  person  seated,  it  sig- 
p.  85)  explains  A s  by  TraXaia.  The  mfies  "adorned,"  and  "  worthy  of 
word  does  actually  occur  with  that  reverence,  exalted."  And  since  the 
signification  (see  Brugsch,  W.  B.,  hieroglyph  of  Isis  is  a  chair,  the  latter 
p.  120)  ;  but  in  the  instance  referred  signification  must  certainly  be  chosen. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  57 

herself  called  "  Mistress  of  Shetu,"  one  of  the  designations 
of  the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  and  in  this  respect  she  corre- 
sponds to  Persephone.  With  Demeter,  mother-earth,  she 
has  this  in  common,  that  she  is  "  the  great  divine  mother," 
and  goddess  of  fertility.  As  mother  goddess  she  wears 
her  coif  in  the  form  of  a  vulture,  a  bird  which  was  looked 
upon  as  the  emblem  of  maternity ;  or  in  place  of  a  human 
head  she  has  that  of  a  cow,  a  symbol  that  needs  no  ex- 
planation ; 1  and  she  is  also  called  Ocrlialat,  "  the  great 
power,"  the  nature-power  of  conception  and  birth  deified 
in  her  person. 

It  is  now  impossible  to  tell  precisely  to  what  natural 
phenomena  the  character  of  Isis  at  first  referred.  Origi- 
nally she  was  a  goddess  of  fecundity,  the  goddess  par 
excellence,  as  wife  of  the  supreme  god  and  mother  of  the 
god  Horos,  the  avenger  of  his  father.  In  common  with 
all  the  Egyptian  deities  of  a  certain  rank,  she  was  regarded 
as  mistress  of  heaven,  daughter  of  Ea,  and  she  shared  with 
Horos  the  title  of  Lord  of  the  two  worlds,  and  his  em- 
blems of  celestial  power,  the  solar  disk,  horns,  and  ureus 
adder.  She  was  accordingly  a  goddess  of  heaven,  sister, 
daughter,  mother  of  the  sun-god,  and  in  respect  of  these 
titles  may  be  likened  to  Hera-Dione,  the  Juno  of  the 
Italians,  who,  as  goddess  of  the  nocturnal  heavens  and  of 
the  moon,  is  wife  of  Zeus  or  Jupiter,  originally  god  of  day 
and  of  the  bright  heaven.  As  goddess  of  night,  her  head 
is  the  moon. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  draw  a  sharp  line  of  distinction 
between  Isis  and  her  sister  Nephthys,  who  is  called  like- 
wise mother  goddess  and  goddess  of  heaven,  and  she  too 

1  The  opinion  of  Wilkinson  that  proves  that,  before  the  Osirian  my- 

she  owes  her  cow's  head  to  her  iden-  thology  became  fixed,   Isis  was   in 

tification  with  Hathor,  is  refuted  by  some  localities  regarded  as  consort 

an  ancient  myth  which  relates  how  of   Set,  and  in  that  character  was 

her  son  Horos,  in  order  to  punish  represented  with  the  shape  of  a  cow. 

her  for  her  mildness  towards   Set,  She,    likewise,    is  found  under  the 

smote  off  her  head,  and  how  Thot  form  of  a  female  hippopotamus,  a 

gave  her  a  cow's  head  in  place  of  it.  form  which  is  pretty  common  even 

The  myth  points  to  a  combination  down    to    later   times,   and    which 

of  Isis  with  Set ;  in  other  words,  it  marks  her  as  the  wife  of  Set*. 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

wears  the  vulture  hood  and  the  sun's  disk,  with  the  horns 
on  her  head,  and  also  is  called  "  mistress  of  heaven,"  and 
it  is  said  of  her  that  she  bestows  fulness  of  life  and  joy.1 
Not  unfrequently  she  is  confounded  with  Isis,  who,  in  one 
instance,  has  been  discovered  wearing  on  her  head  the 
hieroglyphic  emblem  of  Nephthys.2  And  while  on  the 
one  hand  Isis  is  sometimes  found  designated  as  wife  of 
Set,  Nephthys,  on  the  other  hand,  is  said  to  have  become 
by  Osiris  the  mother  of  Anubis,  whom  Isis  in  her  turn 
brought  up;  so  that  before  the  Osirian  mythology  was 
fixed,  we  see  that  Nephthys  was  regarded  by  some  of  the 
worshippers  of  Osiris  as  the  lawful  wife  of  this  beneficent 
deity,  and  it  is  perhaps  in  connection  with  this  that  she 
is  called  NeU-ha,  i.e.,  "  mistress  of  the  house." 

The  well-known  fact  may  be  repeated  here  that  nearly 
all  the  myths  about  the  adultery  of  the  gods  sprang  simply 
from  this,  that  in  different  localities  the  principal  deities 
were  found  coupled  with  different  consorts.  One  among 
these,  she  who  was  most  honoured,  or  the  goddess  of  the 
ruling  tribe,  was  by  and  by  declared  to  be  the  lawful 
spouse,  while  the  others  sank  to  the  rank  of  concubines. 

Nephthys  never  shared  the  evil  fame  of  Set  her  husband, 
the  god  of  death.  Along  with  Isis,  she  bewails  the  mur- 
dered Osiris,  and  watches  over  the  beloved  dead  with 
outstretched  wings.3  While,  accordingly,  she  is  named 
guardian  of  the  dead,  it  is  in  a  favourable  sense.  She 
presides  at  the  close  of  life,  but  it  is  a  close  which  leads 
to  victory. 

The  signification  of  Isis  and  Nephthys  as  nature  god- 
desses comes  out  with  somewhat  greater  clearness  in  the 
description  of  the  divine  ship  of  Horos.  It  is  said  there 
that  the  yard  is  the  goddess  of  heaven  (Nu),  and  that  Isis 
and  Nephthys  are  the  two  extremities  of  this  yard.  They 
must  therefore  be  considered  as  the  two  extremities  of 


1  Pleyte,  Lettre  a  Devéria,  p.  17.  3  Brugsch,    Die  Adonisklage 

2  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  Suppl.,  PL     das  Linoslied,  p.  23. 
34,  No-  2. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  59 

heaven,  the  two  horizons,  whether  the  east  and  the  west, 
or  the  north  and  the  south,  or,  as  that  which  is  quite  the 
same  thinq-,  the  morning  and  evening  twilight. 

CD'  O  OO 

The  name  Nephthys  (Ncbt-ha),  "  mistress  of  the  house," 
was  undoubtedly  understood  originally  in  a  physical  sense, 
the  house  being  that  to  which  the  sun  returns  at  the  end  of 
his  course,  that  is,  the  nocturnal  heavens ;  but  afterwards 
Nephthys  became,  like  Isis,  the  exalted,  a  symbol  of  the 
wife  of  kings,  the  heavenly  type  of  the  Egyptian  matron, 
whose  usual  designation  was  "  mistress  of  the  house."  This 
moral  signification  appears  to  have  secured  to  her  a  place 
in  the  Osirian  pantheon  beside  Isis,  to  whom,  as  a  nature 
goddess,  she  so  entirely  corresponds.1 

Another  goddess  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon,  Hathor,  in 
quite  as  great  a  degree  as  Nephthys,  resembles  Isis,  and 
was  in  a  much  greater  degree  identified  with  her.  Thougli 
no  definite  part  is  assigned  to  her  in  the  wrell-known  myth 
of  Osiris,  we  must  nevertheless  consider  her  in  this  con- 
nection. That  she  was  sometimes  confounded  with  Isis  is 
not  astonishing,  since  she  had  in  common  with  her  a  form 
with  a  human  or  with  a  cow's  head,  the  coif  being  adorned 
sometimes  with  the  very  emblems  of  Isis  ;  and  also  the  form 
of  a  cow.  Hathor  too  is  the  mother  and  nurse  of  Horos,  and 
at  the  same  time  his  wife.  Among  the  names  by  which 
she  is  designated  in  her  principal  temple  at  Dendera,  that 
of  Isis  occurs  frequently,  and  she  is  there  even  called 
"  Hathor  who  is  Isis  at  Dendera,"  although  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  these  inscriptions  at  least  belong  to  a  later 
period;  but,  at  any  rate,  she  was  placed  on  a  line  with 
Isis  at  an  early  date.  With  Nu  likewise,  of  wThom  we 
shall  speak  presently,  she  had  not  a  few  points  in  com- 

1  The  explanation  is  well  known  presented  as  the  sister  of  Isis,  and 

that    makes    Nephthys    goddess    of  as  grieved  at  the  death  of  Osiris  ?    It 

the  desert  between  the  Eastern  Nile  is  certain   there  is  nothing  on  the 

bank  and  the  Red  Sea,  Set  the  deso-  monuments  to  justify  this  view,  which 

lating  wind   of  the  Libyan  desert,  is  a  mere  intellectual  conceit,  origi- 

Osiris  the  Nile,  and  Isis  the  earth,  nating  at  a  time  when  the  primary 

But  how  in  that  case  is  it  conceivable  signification  of  the  myths  was  not 

that  Nephthys  should  have  been  re-  understood. 


6o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

mon;  for  example,  she  is  said,  like  Nu,  to  have  been  "  She 
who  brought  forth  all  the  gods,"  and  seated  in  the  heavenly 
sycamore,  she  pours  out  the  waters  of  life.  If  it  be  asked 
whether  this  intermixture  of  deities  is  of  ancient  date,  I 
would  answer  that  in  my  opinion  it  is  not,  -and  that  the 
conception  according  to  which  she  is  goddess  of  love  and 
beauty,  of  joy  and  of  song,  has  equally  little  claim  to  anti- 
quity. That  conception  is,  indeed,  not  foreign  to  her 
nature,  but  it  appears  to  have  arisen  from  the  circum- 
stance that  the  Greeks  regarded  her  in  the  same  light  as 
their  Aphrodite.  Her  worship  prevailed  so  extensively  as 
to  supplant  that  of  Nu,  Nephthys,  and  Isis ;  and  we  may 
take  for  granted  that  the  peculiar  attributes  of  these  god- 
desses with  whom  she  had  so  much  in  common  were 
insensibly  transferred  to  her,  for  this  was  a  process  very 
usual  in  Egyptian  theology.  She  too,  like  the  majority  of 
Egyptian  goddesses,  is  mistress  of  the  visible  heaven  and 
of  the  invisible.  She  is  not,  like  the  mourning  Nephthys, 
the  guardian  of  the  dead,  but  rather  goddess  of  the  heavens 
by  day,  bathed  in  the  pure  bright  sunshine,  and  of  the 
heavens  at  night,  glittering  with  the  mild  light  of  the 
stars,  the  fertile  and  fertilising  mother,  bestower  of  plea- 
sure and  of  good  fortune. 

In  this  character  she  is  the  first-born  of  the  beginning, 
the  nurse  who  satiates  gods  and  goddesses  with  her  gifts, 
and  fills  Egypt  to  overflowing  with  her  benefits.  It  is 
she  who,  as  Nub,  the  golden  one,  first  receives  and  greets 
the  sun  at  his  rising  and  at  his  setting,  that  is,  at  his  birth 
and  at  his  death.  Mother  of  the  young  god  of  the  sun, 
she  bears  likewise  the  name  of  daughter  or  child  of  Ea, 
the  sun-god  in  general,  the  creator.  Hence,  as  Horos  is 
called  the  golden  god,  she  is  called  golden  goddess.  In 
Egypt  there  is  presented  at  sunset  and  sunrise  a  spectacle 
so  magnificent  that  it  can  scarcely  be  imagined  by  those 
who  have  not  witnessed  it.  "The  western  horizon,"  to 
quote  the  words  of  Ampère,  "  is  a  furnace  of  molten  gold, 
the  stems  and  foliage  of  the  palm  trees  are  likewise  gold, 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  61 

and  through  this  dazzling  glow  the  purple  tints  of  the  hills 
can  just  be  perceived.  The  sky  and  the  Nile  become  in 
turn  rose-coloured  and  violet,  like  the  colours  of  an  ame- 
thyst, then  the  light  dies  away." 1 

The  moral  significance  of  goddess  of  beauty  and  of  love, 
of  joy  and  of  the  pleasure  of  life,  of  song  and  of  stringed 
instruments  of  music,  was  evolved  naturally  from  the 
physical  signification,  although,  perhaps,  the  influence  of 
the  Greek  spirit  may  have  tended  to  bring  this  aspect  into 
greater  prominence.  It  was  very  natural  too  that  even  in 
the  most  ancient  times  she  was  worshipped  as  patron  saint 
at  mines,  whether  they  were  dug 2  to  obtain  red  copper 
or  precious  stones,  for  there  could  be  found  for  such  works 
no  patroness  so  suitable  as  the  goddess  who  from  her  dark 
womb  brought  forth  to  the  light  the  golden  sun.3 

Besides  the  three  pairs  of  gods  already  mentioned,  two 
other  deities  also  belong  to  the  Osirian  family.  Usually 
they  stand  alone  without  any  consort.4  These  are  Thot 
and  Anubis. 

Thot  (Thuti  or  Thui)  had,  from  the  most  remote  anti- 
quity, his  principal  temple  at  Sesennu  (Ashmunein)  in 
Upper  Egypt,  a  town  mentioned  on  the  monuments  of 
the  very  earliest  dynasties  as  being  sacred  to  him,  and 
the  sacred  appellation  of  which  (Sesennu,  Ashmunein  = 
eight)  is  derived  from  the  eight  gods  of  creation  who  were 

1  Ampère,  Voyage  en  Egypte  et  Rev.  d.  deux  Mondes,  1S67,  p.  1S9) 
en  Nubie,  p.  296.  regard  her  as  the  nocturnal,   or,  as 

2  Brugsch,  Wanderung  nach  den  they  call  it,  the  heaven  of  the  under- 
Turkisininen  und  der  Sinai  Halb-  world,  I  believe  this  to  be  incorrect, 
insel,  pp.  12,  74,  80.  Accord-  It  would  at  least  leave  unexplained 
ing  to  Brugsch,  the  mines  there,  various  attributes  of  Hathor,  about 
which  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  which  there  is  no  difficulty  according 
kings  of  the  eleventh  dynasty  were  to  the  explanation  I  give, 
worked  out,  were  not,  as  Lepsius  4  It  was  not  until  he  had  become 
considered  them  to  be,  copper  mines,  Thot,  the  thrice  great,  Hermes  Tris- 
but  turquois  mines.  If  he  is  right,  megistus,  that  at  Troja,  near  Mem- 
the  blue  gems  taken  out  of  the  mine  phis,  at  Philak  and  at  other  places, 
were  a  fitting  image  of  the  blue  he  was  coupled  with  Nehemanus, 
heaven  that  would  seem  to  be  dug  or  Nehemau,  one  of  the  forms  of 
out  from  the  masses  of  dark  clouds,  Hathor.  See  Lepsius,  D.  Götter 
represented  by  the  mountain.  der  vier  Elementen,  taf.  iv.,  No.  13. 

3  Though   Mariette    and   Maury     Brugsch,  Reiseberichte,  p.  45. 
(Rev.  Archseol.,    1S62,  vi.  133,  and 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

worshipped  there  along  with  him.  As  to  his  nature  there 
is  no  room  for  doubt.  He  bears  the  moon's  disk  between 
two  horns  on  his  head,  and  on  that  account,  and  for 
other  reasons,  he  must  unquestionably  be  regarded  as  god 
of  the  moon.  Moon  deities  of  the  male  sex  are  not 
uncommon  in  other  mythologies — in  the  Germanic  and 
Eoman,  for  instance;  and  among  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians,  Sin,  the  god  of  the  moon,  occupied  a  very  high 
rank.  Accordingly  we  find  Thot  has  a  place  in  the  bark 
of  the  sun,  where  the  principal  light-gods  were  grouped 
together.  He  is  "  King  of  Eternity,"  and  in  that  character 
holds  in  his  hand  a  palm  branch,  the  symbol  of  the  year, 
and  upon  it  marks  occurrences  of  importance,  or  the 
periods  of  time.  That  the  moon-god  should  also  be  god 
of  time,  and  thus  of  eternity,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
among  a  people  who  at  first  were  acquainted  only  with 
the  lunar  year.  In  reference  to  this  a  peculiar  myth 
exists.  Thot,  so  it  is  related,  invented  draughts,  and  won 
from  the  moon  the  five  intercalary  days  that  at  a  later 
period  were  added  to  the  lunar  year.1  Thot,  by  this  time 
no  longer  the  moon  itself  regarded  as  a  divine  being,  but 
distinct  from  it,  and  become  now  the  god  of  science,  wins 
from  her  the  five  days  she  would  not  give  of  her  own 
accord.  In  other  words,  the  improved  mode  of  reckoning 
time  was  ascribed  to  the  god  who  invented  all  the  arts 
and  was  the  fountain  of  all  knowledge ;  and  since  he  was 
so  closely  connected  with  the  moon,  it  was  fabled  that  he 
had  won  from  her  these  five  days  by  gaming.2  As  God 
of  the  moon,  Thot  is  likewise  governor  of  the  four  winds — 
the  winds,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  night — just  as  the  sun-god 
brought  forth  the  four  winds  of  the  day  "  by  the  fire  of 
his  mouth."     Ancient  peoples  conceived  of  the  wind  as 

1  See  Birch,  Rev.  Archaeol.,  1S65,     is  at  the  head  of  those  of  the  heavtn. 


u.  57- 


All  we  know  is,  that  the  Babylonian 


2  I    cannot    satisfactory    explain  moon-god   Sin    also   was  commonly 

why  Thot,   in  particular,  instead  of  named  "the  protector,"  or  "the  illu- 

or  along  with  Seb,  is  placed  at  the  minator  of  the  earth." 
head  of  the  gods  of  the  earth  as  Horos 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  63 

being  the  breath  of  the  creative,  light-giving  god,  whether 
revealed  in  sun  or  moon,  and  Thot  as  well  as  Ea  is  creator. 
Yet,  although  this  natural  signification  was  never  lost 
sight  of,  a  moral  significance  also  was  attributed  to  Thot 
even  in  the  most  remote  antiquity.  He  was  the  god  of 
knowledge,  of  letters,  of  priestly  culture,  the  only  culture 
Egypt  had,  and  accordingly  god  of  the  priests  par  excellence. 
The  connection  between  these  qualities  and  his  lunar 
character  is  easily  understood.  Science  began  with  the 
observation  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  computation 
of  time,  and  for  these  studies  no  more  suitable  patron 
could  be  found  than  the  god  of  the  moon,  who,  with  her 
peaceful  light,  rules  the  stillness  of  night.  All  work 
demanding  more  than  common  skill  and  intelligence 
was  consecrated  to  him.  Thus,  he  was  worshipped 
in  combination  with  Hathor  and  Horos-sophd  at  the 
mines  in  Sinai.  As  inventor  of  all  arts  and  of  writ- 
ing, he  was  master  of  the  divine  word,  the  writer  who 
composed  or  inspired1  the  holy  scriptures.  He  was  the 
founder  of  libraries,  and  it  was  he  who  bestowed  their 
significant  names  on  the  kings.  He  was  the  lawgiver, 
too,  whose  laws  were  immutable.  In  the  under- world  he 
filled  the  post  of  advocate  and  justifier  of  the  good,  who, 
through  his  pleading,  gained  an  acquittal  at  the  judgment 
throne  of  Osiris,  who  had  once  himself  been  in  like  manner 
acquitted  through  the  advocacy  of  Thot.2  This  may,  per- 
haps, have  originally  had  a  natural  sense ;  the  god  of  the 
moon,  which  receives  its  light  from  the  invisible  sun,  may 
easily,  in  poetico-mythological  language,  have  come  to  be 
iboked  on  as  the  justifier  of  the  sun-god,  the  pledge  of  his 
beneficence,  the  instrument  of  his  revival.  Thus  Thot 
became  in  general  the  justifier  of  all  who  think  themselves 
injured  or  disowned.  "  The  god  Thot,"  so  exclaims  the 
scribe  Hui  in  his  pleading  {Papyrus  Anastasi  I.),  "  stands 
as   a   shield    behind    me."3      Along    with    him   worship 

1  See  Book  of  the  Dead,  xviii.  24.     fur  Aeg.  sprache,  &c.,  186S,  p.  I  et 

2  Rev.  Archseol.,  1863,  viii.  105.      scq.,  and  Lauth,  Moses  der  Ebraër, 

3  Compare  De  Horrack  in  the  Zs.     p.  84. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

was  rendered,  even  in  the  remotest  antiquity,  to  the 
goddess  Safech,1  the  mistress  of  libraries,  represented  as 
a  woman  adorned  almost  always  with  a  panther's  skin, 
the  dress  of  the  higher  priesthood,  and  bearing  on  her 
head  an  emblem  that  seems  to  mark  her  as  goddess  of 
the  starlight.  As  far  as  I  know,  however,  she  is  never 
spoken  of  as  wife  of  Thot.2  The  animals  sacred  to  him 
were  the  ibis  and  clogheaded  ape.  He  is  often  represented 
under  the  latter  form,  which  is  also  assumed  by  the  eight 
gods  (the  Sesennu)  who  form  his  retinue.  He,  in  common 
with  these  animals,  bears  also  the  name  of  Asten,  or 
Astennu.  This  was  an  animal  which  was  regarded  in 
Egypt,  for  what  reason  we  do  not  very  well  know,  as  the 
symbol  of  the  equality  of  day  and  night,  and  generally  of 
equilibrium,  of  equality.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  Asten 
is  constantly  represented  seated  upon  the  beam  of  the 
sacred  balance  precisely  above  the  index,  in  the  psychos- 
tasias  as  well  as  in  the  temples. 

From  the  first,  very  great  honour  was  paid  to  Thot,  and 
as  the  power  and  influence  of  his  patrons  the  priests 
increased,  and  the  country  became  more  civilised,  the 
favour  he  enjoyed  augmented  steadily.  From  great  he 
rose  to  twice  great,  to  thrice  great,  and  when  the  name 
and  imao-e  of  Set  were  obliterated  from  the  monuments, 

o 

it  was  most  frequently  Thot  who  took  the  vacant  place. 
At  the  time,  too,  when  a  new  religion,  the  universal  reli- 
gion that  took  its  rise  in  Palestine,  began  slowly  to  supplant 
the  ancient  Egyptian  one,  Hermes  Trismegistus  was  the  god 
in  whom,  more  than  any  other,  men  gloried,  and  under 
his  name  a  sort  of  theosophy  was  propagated  which  had  no 
little  influence  on  the  formation  of  early  Christian  doctrine. 
A  god  of  much  less  importance,  and  who  was  very 
speedily  cast  into  the  shade 3  by  other  deities  is  Anubis 

1  Comp.  Lepsius,  Aelt.  Texte  des  Reiseberichte,  p.  294  ct  seq. ) ;  Ma, 
Todtenbuchs,  p.  3,  n.  Her  name  Goddess  of  Righteousness ;  and 
must  be  written  as  in  the  text,  and  Pacht,  the  wife  of  Ptah,  the  mistress 
not,  as  it  usually  is,  Saf.  of  thoughts  (ibid.,  p.  264). 

2  Other  gods  of  libraries  and  lite-  3  The  conjecture  of  Brugsch,  that 
rature  are  Atmu  of  Thebes  (Brugsch,  he  anciently  occupied  the  place  taken 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  65 

Anup  (from  an  =  to  conduct).  He  is,  as  his  name 
imports,  the  conductor  of  the  dead,  the  god  of  mummies 
and  of  embalming,  and  he  may  always  be  recognised  by 
his  jackal's  head.  Thus,  he  may  be  seen  ("Book  of  the 
Dead/'  chap,  cxvii.)  conducting  the  dead  to  the  western 
gate  Sta.  In  the  tombs  (e.g.,  tomb  No.  32  at  Qurna)  he 
is  frequently  found  depicted  as  a  guardian  standing  beside 
the  mummy.  One  of  his  most  usual  names  is  Ap-heru, 
guardian  of  the  ways,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  heavenly  path- 
ways over  which  the  dead  pass  towards  the  abode  of  Osiris. 
He  is  brought  into  connection  with  the  Dogstar  which 
occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  Egyptian  mythology 
and  chronology.1  Perhaps  he  is  nothing  but  this  star  per- 
sonified as  a  divine  being.  Among  other  nations  also,  as 
is  well  known,  Sirius,  the  most  brilliant  of  the  fixed  stars, 
was  worshipped  as  a  god,  and  among  the  Hindoos,  Per- 
sians, and  Greeks,  it  was  held  in  the  highest  estimation. 
It  is  a  star  peculiarly  fitted  to  be  regarded  as  keeping  vigil 
over  the  body  of  Osiris  and  as  conductor  to  the  regions  of 
light,  and  it  was  indeed  called  the  soul  of  Isis.  Accord- 
ing to  the  common  tradition  Anubis  was  a  son  of  Osiris 
and  Nephthys,  whence  it  appears  that  in  the  localities 
where  homage  was  paid  to  Osiris  and  Nephthys  as  divine 
consorts,  he  usually  occupied  the  third  place  in  the  divine 
triad  of  father,  mother,  and  son.  He  is,  however,  also 
designated  as  a  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  or  of  Set  and 
Nephthys,  and  in  connection  with  these  pairs  he  appears 
likewise  to  have  filled  the  place  of  son.  Like  all  gods  of 
light  he  is  son  of  the  sun. 

All  the  gods  of  the  Osirian  circle  are  descendants  of 
common  ancestors,  Seb  and  Nu,  whose  precise  signification 
is  difficult  to  define.  But  if,  instead  of  taking  each  of  the 
names  which  have  been  given  to  them  into  consideration 
by  itself,  we  comprise  them  all  in  one  view,  a  satisfactory 

by  Osiris,  while  in  no  way  proved,         *  See  Chabas,   Pap.  Mag.  Harris 
has  not  hitherto  been  confirmed  by     p.  101. 
the  most  ancient  monuments. 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

explanation  is  reached.  It  is  accordingly  proved  beyond 
question  by  a  very  great  number  of  texts,  that  Seb  is  a 
god  of  the  earth  or  a  personification  of  the  earth,  who 
even  became  completely  identified  with  it  at  a  later  period. 
But  the  earth  is  here  looked  upon  as  material  substance, 
durable,  lasting,  eternal,  existing  for  ever.  For  this  among 
other  reasons,  King  Menkaura  is  called,  upon  a  sarcophagus, 
offspring  of  Nut  and  flesh  of  Seb.  Seb  is  therefore  the 
most  ancient  of  the  gods,  "  Lord  of  the  length  of  time,  of 
eternity,"  1  and  he  is  hence  constantly  named  the  most 
ancient  sovereign.  It  is  no  doubt  on  account  of  this  that 
the  Greeks  have  compared  him  with  their  Kronos,  who 
likewise  was  the  king  of  the  golden  age  of  old.  It  is 
however  incorrect  to  designate  him,  as  Lepsius  and  to  a 
certain  extent  Mariette  still  do,  as  the  god  of  time,  which 
neither  he  nor  Kronos  was.  Upon  various  tombs  Seb  is 
represented  as  recumbent,  while  Kut,  goddess  of  heaven, 
forms  above  him  as  it  were  an  arched  vault,  exactly  simi- 
lar to  the  representations  of  Ymer  the  German  giant  of 
matter,  and  Audhumbla  the  cow  of  heaven.  His  ordinary 
symbol  is  however  the  goose,  that  according  to  Egyptian 
tradition  laid  the  egg  of  the  world. 

His  wife  Nu  or  Nu-tpe  is  likewise  called  "  She  who 
brought  forth  the  gods."  She  has  this  in  common  with 
most  of  the  Egyptian  goddesses,  that  she  is  regarded  as  a 
goddess  of  heaven.  Like  Hathor,  she  too  sits  in  the 
heavenly  sycamore  and  pours  forth  the  waters  of  life 
into  the  hands  of  a  soul  that  refreshes  itself  with  them,  or 
she  even  pours  down  a  stream  of  all  sorts  of  gifts,  such  as 
flowers  and  fruits  upon  her  patrons.  She  is  undoubtedly 
the  goddess  of  water  regarded  as  a  cosmogonic  principle, 
of  the  heavenly  ocean,  who  gives  water  to  the  souls  of  the 
departed  usually  identified  with  the  stars,  and  in  fertilis- 
ing dew  she  causes  all  kinds  of  blessings  to  come  down 
on  the  earth. 

At  night,  when  even  the  moon  is  invisible,  all  that  is 

1  So  Champollion  Monumens,  PI.  CLXII. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  67 

in  the  universe,  all  the  gods  of  the  luminous  heaven  are  at 
rest  (cmhotep)  in  peace.  The  heaven  rests  upon  the  earth 
like  a  goose  brooding  over  her  egg.  The  earth-god  alone 
continues  to  reign.  The  mistress  of  the  heavenly  ocean 
alone  shares  his  vigil,  and  reveals  herself  in  the  clear  star- 
light, continuing  all  the  night  through  to  bestow  her  bene- 
fits ;  all  the  other  gods  are  hidden.  Thus  must  it  have  been, 
thought  the  Egyptian,  once  in  the  beginning  of  things. 
Then  there  existed  no  others,  save  the  eternal  god,  the  god 
of  everlasting  substance  and  the  eternal  waters  that  covered 
and  overflowed  all  things.  But  just  as  each  morning  from 
the  marriage  of  these  two  the  gods  of  the  clear  daylight 
heaven  are  born,  so  it  happened  before  the  ages ;  so  before 
Osiris  came  into  being,  or  Horos,  or  any  one  of  the  gods, 
did  Seb  the  father  of  them  all  bear  sway. 

With  this  mythology  is  connected  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality, which  in  no  other  ancient  people  is  so  fully 
developed,  or  occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  the  theo- 
logical system,  as  among  the  Egyptians.  It  is  indeed  the 
case  that  the  doctrine  did  not  arise  out  of  the  mythology, 
but  was  merely  brought  into  close  connection  with  it.  So 
soon  as  man  relinquishes  the  standpoint  of  instinctive 
belief,  he  begins  to  reflect,  to  reason,  to  seek  a  basis  for 
his  faith.  The  first  pledge  of  renewal  of  life  after  death 
was  discovered  in  what  men  saw  happen  to  the  sun  every 
day  and  every  year.  He  too  died,  and  he  revived.  And 
was  not  he  a  living  being  ?  Had  not  he  become  a  personal 
deity  1  Were  not  men  his  children  ?  Thus  the  Egyptians 
reasoned,  and  not  only  they  but  others  as  well,  and  among 
them  the  Hindoos,  so  that  this  mode  of  reasoning  appears 
to  have  been,  from  remotest  antiquity,  peculiar  to  the  whole 
Caucasian  race,  and  not  special  to  the  Mesopotamians  or 
the  Aryans ;  unless  it  be  met  with,  which  I  am  not  aware 
of,  in  other  races  likewise. 

It  is  at  all  events  certain,  that  the  belief  in  immortality, 
the  hope  of  life  eternal,  was  in  no  other  people  more 
deeply  rooted  than  among  the  Egyptians.     Diodorus  truly 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

observes,  "  The  Egyptians  call  the  dwellings  of  the  living 
inns,  because  in  them  they  live  but  a  short  time;   the 
tombs  of  the  dead,  however,  they  call  eternal  abodes,  since 
in  Hades  they  continue  to  live  on  in  a  limitless  eternity." 
Hence  the  Egyptian  was   filled  with  anxiety  about  his 
grave  more  than  about  anything  else.     Eor  example,  a  cer- 
tain Saneha,  who  lived  under  the  first  kings  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty,  had  been  banished,  but  had  had  the  good  fortune  to 
be  well  received  at  the  court  of  a  neighbouring — probably 
Libyan — prince.     There  he  rose  to  the  highest  posts  of 
honour,  and,  with  his  family,  was  at  home.     He  lived  in 
luxury  and  overflowing  abundance.     But  the  thought  that 
he  must  die  there,  that  he  would  not  be  carried  to  the  grave 
in  his  native  land,  and  would  thus  fail  to  secure  a  new 
birth  and  eternal  power  of  changing  his  shape ;  this  thought 
oppressed  him  and  made  him  look  out  anxiously  for  leave 
to  return  home.     It  was  given,  the  king  remembered  him, 
and  desired  his  return,  holding  out  as  one  of  the  strongest 
inducements  the  same  consideration,  "  Think  upon  the  day 
of  your  burial,  the  journey  to  Amenti,  for  you  have  already 
reached  middle  age."  He  promises  that  the  interment  shall 
be  splendid.     Saneha,  on  his  part,  does  not  hesitate,  but 
leaves  everything,  even  his  very  children,  behind  him  in 
order  to  erect  without  delay  a  magnificent  tomb  in  pre- 
paration for  his  approaching  death.     It  is  no  wonder  then 
that  a  hope  so  lively  left  its  impress  on  the  teachings  of 
their  faith,  and  became  fixed  as  a  dogma.     The  Egyptian 
expressed  it  in  this  way — The  deceased,  provided  he  had 
lived  piously,  as  a  child  of  light,  becomes  Osiris.     Like 
that  of  the  sun-god,  his  shade  sinks  gently  down  in  the 
West,  while  his  soul  ascends  to  heaven,  and  his  body  is 
laid  in  the  tomb.     Next,  it  depends  on  what  happens  to 
himself,  that  is,  to  his  shade,  whether  his  soul  shall  be  re- 
united to  his  body  and  he  shall  thus  revive  again  to  life.  He 
enters  that  world  which  at  one  time  is  called  "  the  hidden  " 
(Amenti),  at  another  "  the  reversed  world  of  the  double 
righteousness  "  (Set-i  or  Set-mati),  and  again  "  the  land  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  6<) 

rest "  (Teser),  or  also  Crier- nuter,  "  the  divine  under-world." 
There,  as  a  sinner,  he  must  be  judged.  The  judgment,  how- 
ever variously  it  may  be  described,  in  its  principal  features 
amounts  to  the  following : — first,  it  is  ascertained  whether 
the  deceased  is  Osiris,  or  in  other  words,  whether  he  is  re- 
lated to  the  divine  good  being.  Ma,  the  goddess  of  truth 
and  righteousness,  or  Horos  himself,  conducts  him  within. 
His  soul  is  then  weighed  on  the  divine  balance  by  Anubis, 
Horos,  and  Thot.  The  last  mentioned  records  the  sum 
total,  and,  if  it  be  possible,  justifies  the  soul.  Finally,  he 
is  brought  by  Horos  before  Osiris,  who,  seated  upon  his 
throne  of  judgment,  with  the  hell-monster  before  him,  the 
four  genii  of  the  dead  close  by,  and  surrounded  by  the 
seventy-two  judges,  gives  a  verdict.  Should  it  be  one  of 
condemnation,  the  soul  has  to  undergo  the  second  death, 
and  is  delivered  up  to  annihilation.  One  of  the  gods — 
either  the  terrible  Set,  or  Horos,  or  it  may  be  one  of  the 
serpents,  Sapi  or  Apap,  demons  of  darkness,  or  the  bene- 
volent Turn,  the  hidden  sun-god,  in  fact  another  Osiris — 
cuts  off  his  head.  The  punishment  did  not,  however,  end 
with  the  execution,  which,  it  would  appear,  did  not  ex- 
tinguish consciousness.  At  least,  he  is  next  cast  into  the 
everlasting  flames.  A  never-ending  death  seems  to  have 
been  the  conception  of  the  punishment  of  hell  entertained 
by  the  Egyptians.  This  punishment  was  likewise  per- 
sonified in  the  female  demon  Auai,  a  name  that  would 
seem  to  have  been  suggested  by  the  sound  of  "  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth."  We  have  already  noticed  other 
modes  of  punishment,  as  for  instance  that  of  being  torn 
and  devoured  by  an  evil  spirit  and  then  transmuted  into 
its  excrement.  There  were  many  such  punishments,  and 
it  would  appear  that  there  was  a  difference  in  the  penal- 
ties, according  to  the  different  sins  of  which  men  had  been 
guilty,  for  hell  had  seventy-five  compartments. 

The  deepest  misery  was  frequently  expressed  by  say- 
ing that  the  condemned  see  not  the  light,  and  are  no  longer 
kept  in  remembrance.     To  sit  in  everlasting  darkness — 


7o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

a  phrase  that  irresistibly  recalls  the  outer  darkness  of  the 
Gospel — and  to  be  forgotten,  were  the  most  dreadful  ideas 
to  the  mind  of  the  good  Egyptian,  the  friend  of  the  light, 
who  his  whole  life  long  esteemed  no  effort  that  he  could 
make  too  great,  if  he  could  thereby  immortalise  himself. 

Yet  he  who,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  condemned,  did 
not,  on  account  of  that,  escape  henceforth  from  all  con- 
flict :  he  was  obliged  to  be  purified  in  battle  and  cleansed 
by  fire.  He  must  pass  through  fifteen  or  more  portals,  at 
which  the  most  terrifying  trials  awaited  him.  Monsters 
attacked  him,  he  was  menaced  by  dangers,  nets  were  laid  to 
ensnare  him  ;  at  one  time  he  was  obliged  to  travel  through 
desolate  tracts  where  nothing  grew,  and  which  were  under 
the  dominion  of  seven  evil  spirits;  then  he  had  to  sail 
over  the  heavenly  ocean,  and  in  his  voyage  was — just  as 
they  were  who  sailed  in  the  bark  of  the  sun — perpetually 
in  danger  of  falling  overboard  and  being  drowned ;  some- 
times he  was  caught  in  the  mazes  of  a  labyrinth.  But  if 
he  kept  steadfast  and  fought  bravely  with  the  sacred  spear, 
and  repeated  the  magical  words  of  power  from  the  sacred 
books  and  hymns,  he  reached  at  last  the  happy  fields, 
the  aalu-fields,  where  a  lordly  banquet  was  served  up 
to  him.  There  he  could  labour  again  as  he  once  did 
on  earth,  cultivating  the  soil  and  gathering  in  a  fabulous 
harvest.  There  he  is  illuminated  by  the  glory  of  Osiris, 
and  bathes  himself  in  contemplation  of  the  god  of  light. 
There,  too,  he  may,  as  a  spirit  of  light  {dm),  accompany 
the  sun-god  in  his  bark,  sailing  over  the  heavenly  ocean, 
or  at  night  (as  sahu)  he  may  sparkle  in  the  firmament  as 
a  star.  He  is  now  one  of  the  pious  (amliu),  the  faithful 
(hesu),  the  wise  (akeru),  the  rich  (asii).  Accordingly,  to 
be  with  the  deity  and  to  be  like  him  is,  even  in  this,  the 
oldest  development  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  what 
constitutes  salvation. 

It  may  perhaps  excite  astonishment  that  in  this  doctrine 
no  mention  is  made  of  the  metempsychosis,  nor  of  a  distinct 
resurrection  of  the  dead  out  of  the  tomb — dogmas  that  have 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  71 

been  hitherto  ascribed  to  the  Egyptians  on  the  authority 
of  Herodotus.  According  to  the  Greek  historian,  the  soul 
of  the  departed  is  said  to  have  passed  into  an  animal,  and 
after  having  gone  through  all  the  ranks  of  the  animal 
world,  it  was  at  the  end  of  three  thousand  years  reunited 
to  the  human  body.  On  the  monuments,  however,  next 
to  nothino-  has  been  discovered  that  can  be  said  to  confirm 

o 

this  account.  In  the  tomb  of  one  of  the  Eamesids  indeed 
there  is  a  representation  that  might  suggest  such  a  doctrine. 
The  departed,  after  having  been  judged  by  Osiris,  is  being 
removed  under  the  form  of  a  pig,  the  unclean  animal,  upon 
a  bark  guided  by  two  dogheaded  apes,  the  animals  of  Thot, 
the  whole  being  under  the  superintendence  of  Anubis. 
Apparently,  the  deceased  is  being  taken  to  the  place  of 
torment,  and  not,  as  is  usually  believed,  to  the  earth.1 
This  representation  is,  however,  unique,  and  is  assuredly 
symbolical.  Herodotus  probably  formed  a  false  idea  of  the 
well-known  Egyptian  doctrine  of  the  metamorphoses  of 
the  dead.  According  to  the  Book  of  the  Dead 2  the  de- 
ceased may  assume  all  sorts  of  shapes — that  of  a  sparrow- 
hawk,  an  adder,  a  crocodile-headed  god — in  order  by  this 
expedient  to  trick  his  enemies,  exactly  as  we  learn  from 
the  myths  Osiris  used  to  do.  Not  until  after  this  is  the 
soul,  which  always  accompanies  the  shade  in  the  form  of 
a  sparrowhawk  with  human  head,  reunited  to  the  body. 
But  all  this  happens  in  the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  not  on 
earth.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  father  of  history  mis- 
took the  doctrine  taught  by  Pythagoras  among  the  Greeks 
for  a  genuine  Egyptian  one.  Perhaps,  too,  at  a  later  period 
there  may  have  arisen  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile 
valley  a  dogma  of  the  soul's  incarnation  evolved  from  the 
ancient  eschatology.  If  so,  that  dogma  is  certainly  not 
ancient,  and  their  original  doctrine  of  immortality  is  nothing 
but  a  mystic  representation  arising  out  of  sun-worship.  Just 
as  the  setting  of  the  sun  was  for  them  a  separation  of  the 

1  See  Wükinson,  M.  and  C.  Suppt.,  PI.  LXXXVIL 

2  Book  of  the  Dead,  chap,  lxxxix. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

body  and  the  soul  of  the  radiant  god,  and  his  rising  a 
reunion  of  the  two,  so,  they  believed,  was  likewise  the 
future  lot  of  man.  With  the  sun-^od  he  in  like  manner 
rose  again  to  life,  to  life  in  a  higher  sphere. 

Meanwhile,  much  in  the  faith  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
still  remains  obscure.  The  study  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
a  study  still  in  its  infancy,  will  assuredly  cast  new  light 
on  many  points.  Thus,  for  example,  it  is  still  customary 
to  speak  of  the  underworld,  the  subterranean  heaven,  but 
I  have  very  great  doubts  whether  Cher  Nuter  is  really 
properly  a  subterranean  tract,  and  I  should  be  much  more 
inclined  to  recognise  in  it  the  highest,  the  hidden  heaven. 
I  am  not,  of  course,  a  stranger  to  the  idea  that  the  matter 
must  be  represented  as  follows — the  sun-god  and  they 
who,  like  him,  die,  sink  into  the  tomb,  enter  in  the  west 
the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  the  hidden  heaven,  and  make 
their  way  thence,  not  beneath  the  earth,  but  above  the 
visible  heaven,  in  the  opposite  direction,  towards  the  east- 
There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  found  in  confirmation  of  this 
conception  in  the  representations  and  expressions  on  the 
monuments,  yet  on  this  point  I  do  not  venture  to  speak 
with  certainty,  but  await  a  solution  of  the  problem  from 
a  closer  investigation  of  the  sources. 

The  myth  of  Osiris  is  in  any  case  sufficiently  clear.  It 
sprang  from  the  soil  of  nature-worship  and  always  re- 
mained rooted  there ;  yet  it  had,  even  in  the  earliest  his- 
torical times,  an  ethical  signification.  Osiris  is,  unques- 
tionably, the  sun-god  who  dies  every  day  and  falls  a  prey 
every  evening  to  the  demon  of  darkness,  the  serpent  Apap. 
Bewailed  by  the  goddess  of  heaven,  his  sister  and  consort, 
he  revives  each  morning  in  the  youthful  sun,  the  serpent- 
slayer,  the  avenger  of  his  father.  In  the  night,  unseen  by 
mortal  eye,  the  conflict  takes  place  between  the  youthful 
Horos  and  the  powers  of  darkness,  for  it  is  only  after  the 
battle  has  been  fought  out  that  he  can  in  the  morning 
proceed  on  his  journey.  But  the  earth  keeps  vigil,  and 
with  her  the  celestial  watchman  Sirius,  while  the  moon- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THINIS-ABYDOS.  72 

god  displays  himself  as  substitute  for  the  sun-god,  and  as 
the  living  pledge  of  his  return.  That  is  the  simple  nature- 
ground  from  which  the  myth  arose.  Afterwards,  when 
the  actors  in  the  drama  were  conceived  as  being  in  a  greater 
degree  human,  the  place  of  the  serpent  Apep  was  taken 
by  Set,  the  god  of  the  scorching  sun  heat,  who  had  by  this 
time  become  the  god  of  all  violent  natural  phenomena  in 
general,  and  among  them  of  death.  Hence,  by  a  natural 
transition,  he  was  regarded  as  the  murderer  of  his  brother, 
and  the  great  foe  of  the  youthful  sun.  As  agriculture 
rose  in  importance  in  the  Nile  valley,  the  myth  was  un- 
doubtedly likewise  applied  to  the  change  of  the  seasons. 
It  is,  for  instance,  often  brought  into  connection  with  the 
periodical  inundation  of  the  river.  But  the  purely  natural 
element  of  the  myth  belongs  to  the  prehistoric  period. 
When  we  first  become  acquainted  with  Osiris  he  is  already 
more  than  a  nature-god,  he  has  already  become  a  type  of 
man  dying  and  reviving  again,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
supreme  hidden  god,  lord  of  creation,  who  reveals  himself 
in  the  sun,  and  in  other  beneficent  natural  phenomena. 
Already,  in  the  consciousness  of  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
this  myth  is  the  expression  of  their  faith  in  that  triumph 
of  life  over  death  that  is  to  be  seen  in  all  that  exists,  in  the 
course  of  the  sun,  and  in  the  returning  fruitfulness  of  the 
earth.  It  was  on  this  faith  in  the  victory  of  life  over 
death  that  they  based  their  hope  of  immortality.  But, 
besides,  the  myth  expressed  also  their  faith  in  the  triumph 
of  good,  of  virtue.  They  who,  while  they  lived  on  earth, 
had  been  like  the  good  deity  and  obedient  to  his  com- 
mands, would,  when,  like  him,  they  died,  overcome  with 
him,  and  after  the  victory  reign  with  him  in  the  abodes 
of  light. 


(     74     ) 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

THE  RELIGION   OF  HELIOPOLIS. 

A  place  even  more  renowned  than  Abydos  is  Pa-ra,  the 
city  of  the  sun,  or  as  the  Greeks  translated  it,  Heliopolis. 
It  lies  a  little  to  the  east  of  the  Nile,  and  not  far  from  the 
spot  where  Memphis  was  bnilt.  Its  usual  name  among 
the  Egyptians  and  Hebrews  was  An,  or  On,  a  name 
borne  also  by  two  towns  in  the  south — Hermonthis  and 
Dendera.1  To  this  place,  according  to  the  Hebrew 
narrator,  the  wife  of  Joseph,  Asnet,  or  Asnath  (Exalted 
Keith,  or  simply  Isis-Neith),  is  said  to  have  belonged ; 
she  being  called  a  daughter  of  Potiphera  (Peti-p-ra,  dedi- 
cated to  the  sun-god),  priest  of  On.2  At  a  later  time  On 
became  almost  completely  a  Hebrew  town,  and,  in  fact, 
the  religion  of  this  locality  must,  more  than  that  of  any 
other,  have  agreed  with  that  of  the  ancient  Hebrews.  In 
Egypt  also,  Heliopolis  was  held  in  the  greatest  esteem ; 
coronation  ceremonies  took  place  there  as  at  Memphis, 
and  the  kings  who  were  crowned  there  had  the  special 

1  An    signifies    •'  pillar,    stone."  which  occurs  as  the  name  of  a  per- 

The  name  may  thus  have  been  given  son,  and  then  represents  the  supreme 

to  the  towns  on  account   of   some  god,  the  name  of  the  deity  himself  ? 

remarkable     structure,    an     obelisk  In  any  case  it  cannot  be  mere  acci- 

perhaps,  but  it  is  more  likely  that  dent  that  the  name  An  is  borne  by 

the   reference   here  is  to   a   sacred  the  three  cities  where  the  victorious 

stone,  an  aerolite  that  would  be  kept  Sun  or  Light-god,  as  Ra-har-em-chu, 

hidden  in  the  innermost  sanctuary.  Har-munt,  and  Har-hut  was  the  local 

The  spot  in  or  near  Heliopolis  where  deity.    An  or  Ana,  which  in  theproto- 

this  object  of  the  greatest  mystery  Babylonian  language  signifies  "hea- 

was  kept  veiled  from  the  eyes  of  all  ven,"  has   nothing  to  do  with  the 

except  the  king,  who  beheld  it  at  Egyptian  word,    nor   has    the    god 

his  consecration,  was  called   "Ha-  Anubis  (Egyp.  Anup)  the  least  con- 

benben,     the     house     of    the    two  nection  with  it. 

pyramids  or  obelisks."      Or  is  An,  2  Gen.  xli.  45. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  75 

title  bestowed  on  them  of  Haq-an,  sovereign  lord  of  On. 
The  priesthood  of  Heliopolis  was  regarded  as  an  excep- 
tionally learned  one,  and  this  town  appears  to  have  been 
the  cradle  of  the  entire  sacred  literature.  The  religion 
that  had  its  seat  there  was  no  less  ancient  and  venerable 
than  that  of  Osiris,  and,  like  it,  prevailed  at  a  later  period 
throughout  all  Egypt.  Upon  the  same  extremely  ancient 
monuments  on  which  we  read  the  names  of  Osiris  and 
Isis,  there  occurs  in  brotherly  union  with  these  that  of 
Ea,  the  chief  god  of  On.  The  place  he  takes  in  the  Book 
of  the  Dead  is  in  no  way  less  honourable  and  important 
than  that  assigned  to  Osiris.  They  are  there  confounded 
with  each  other ;  now  the  one,  now  the  other  being  the 
greatest ;  now  the  one,  then  the  other  being  mediator. 
Yet  from  the  remotest  antiquity  there  is  not  the 
slightest  trace  of  any  jealousy  having  ever  existed 
between  these  two  closely  related  worships.  It  was  felt 
even  then  that  the  two  were  one  under  a  diversity  of 
form  ;  or  rather,  for  that  is  saying  too  much,  it  was  felt 
that  the  two  were  one  in  spirit  and  form,  and  differed  only 
in  some  names  and  trifling  idiosyncrasies. 

The  myth  of  Osiris  might  be  described  as  more  Semitic 
in  character,  while  that  of  Ea  is  more  Aryan.  In  every 
point  Osiris  corresponds  to  the  beneficent  sun-god  of  the 
Semites,  to  Adonis  or  Thammuz,  killed  by  the  consuming 
god  of  the  summer  sun.  Ea,  on  the  other  hand,  is  like  all 
the  Aryan  gods  of  the  light  and  of  the  sky;  he  fights 
against  the  demon  of  darkness,  the  serpent  Apap,  who, 
properly  speaking,  is  not  a  god  in  the  same  way  as  are 
Indra,  Apollon,  and  others.  These  analogies  ought  not, 
however,  to  lead  us  in  any  way  to  imagine  that  foreign 
elements  were  introduced  into  the  religion  of  the 
Egyptians,  or  to  think  that  they  may  have  adopted  the 
myths  of  a  people  anterior  to  them  in  history.  It  would 
be  more  accurate  to  regard  the  two  conceptions  as  two 
different  ways  of  expressing  the  same  mythological  strug- 
gle, each  being,  the  one  among  the  Semites,  the  other 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

among  the  Aryans,  a  development  of  one  principal  myth. 
Each  people  found  the  germ  of  this  myth  in  a  primitive 
myth  which  they  severally  took  over  from  their  common 
ancestors  at  a  time  anterior  to  the  period  when  the  race 
to  which  both  belong  divided  into  two  distinct  families. 
The  myth  was  afterwards  developed  by  each  people  under 
the  action  of  special  influences  which  determined  its 
peculiar  drift  and  the  mould  into  which  its  ideas  have  been 
cast,  the  influence  of  climate  being  especially  noticeable. 
In  this  way  both  the  resemblances  and  the  points  of 
difference  which  have  struck  historians  are  alike  fully 
explained. 

The  correspondence  between  Osiris  and  Ea  worship  in 
their  forms  is  evident  enough.  Horos,  the  divinely  per- 
sonified being  common  to  both  systems,  is  represented  in 
the  Osirian  mythology  under  two  forms,  namely,  as  Horos 
the  elder,  father  and  brother  of  Osiris,  and  as  Horos  the 
child.  The  Heliopolitan  visible  sun-god  is  likewise  split 
into  two  persons.  Ea,  in  a  narrower  sense,  god  of  the  sun 
by  day,  and  Harmachis  (Har-m-achu)  the  rising  sun-god, 
the  sun-god  appearing  to  view  on  the  horizon.  Ea  and 
Horos  had  the  same  symbol,  the  sparrow-hawk.  Atum  or 
Turn,  repeatedly  called  god  of  An,  was  in  reality  identical 
with  Osiris,  and  in  the  vignettes  of  the  "  Book  of  the 
Dead"  is  confounded  with  him  (17,  34,  and  elsewhere). 
Shu,  the  god  of  An,  as  he  is  most  commonly  named,  we 
find  a^ain  at  Thinis  as  Nunhur.  The  difference  between 
the  two  seems  to  have  been  this,  that  while  at  Abydos, 
the  place  of  honour  was  occupied  by  the  dead  or  hidden 
god  Osiris,  at  Heliopolis,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  Ea,  the 
self-revealing  god,  who  took  the  chief  place,  how  great 
soever  might  be  the  honours  paid  there  to  Turn  also. 
Hence  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  took  a  more 
prominent  place  in  the  Osirian  theology  than  in  that  of 
Ea,  although  the  "Book  of  the  Dead"  shows  that  Ea 
worship  was  brought  into  connection  with  this  doctrine  in 
very  early  times. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  77 

But  the  contents  of  the  two  systems  are  even  more  in 
accordance  than  the  forms.  This  is  seen  among  other 
instances  from  the  above-quoted  seventeenth  chapter  of 
the  "  Book  of  the  Dead."  I  believe  I  do  not  err  in  consid- 
ering Heliopolis  to  be  the  place  where  the  original  text 
of  this  chapter  was  composed.  The  gods  mentioned  in  it 
belong  to  this  locality.  An  is  the  goal  of  the  pilgrimage 
of  the  deceased,  and  the  ideal  towards  which  he  strives  is 
to  reach  this  city,  the  holy  city.  De  Eougé  is,  however, 
of  opinion  that  here  the  heavenly  An  is  referred  to. 
It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  the  deceased,  as  always 
happens  in  Egyptian  eschatology,  becomes  identified 
with  the  deities,  so  that  properly  it  is  he,  not  they,  who 
speak.  But  it  is  very  possible  that  the  ancient  text 
was  originally  composed  with  another  object  than  to 
serve  as  a  magical  formula  for  the  departed ;  it  may 
have  been  simply  an  inscription  in  the  temple  of  the 
sun-god.  However  that  may  be,  it  at  least  makes  us 
acquainted  with  the  genuine  Heliopolitan  theology  of  the 
olden  time.  In  this  respect  let  us  now  see  what  may  be 
learnt  from  it.1 

"  I  am,"  thus  speaks  the  deity,  or  the  deceased  identified 
with  him — "  I  am  Turn,  a  being  that  is  alone."  This  does 
not  as  yet  amount  to  an  expression  of  monotheistic  doc- 
trine, for  it  simply  means,  Turn  is  the  being  who  once, 
before  the  creation,  existed  alone.  Turn,  as  his  name 
imports,  is  the  still  concealed  or  imprisoned  god,2  in  a 
physical  sense  the  sun-god  in  the  darkness  of  night,  not 
revealing  himself,  but  alive  nevertheless,  and  who  on 
this  account  is  frequently  likened  to  the  setting  sun.     In  a 

1  Comp.  Lepsius  Aelteste  Texte  that  is  the  abstract  signification 
des  Todtenbuchs,  which  includes  a  which  gives  here  no  proper  sense, 
commentary  on  this  portion  which  "  The  god  who  is  not "  would  have 
I  have  mainly  followed.  been  to  Egyptians  an  impossibility. 

2  I  cannot  agree  with  Pleyte's  ex-  The  root  denotes  to  shut  up,  to  sepa- 
planation  ;  who  is  not,  Theol.  Tijd-  rate,  to  hide,  and  from  this  the  name 
schrift,   1869,   No.  3,  p.  243.     Turn  must  be  derived. 

or   Tern  certainly  signifies  not,  but 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

cosmical  sense  lie  is  the  god  who,  before  there  was  diver- 
sity in  the  creation,  reigned  and  was  alone  in  the  fathom- 
less abyss,  or  rather  who  was  the  sonl  of  it.  On  this 
account  he  is,  in  another  passage  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
(yS,  at  the  end),  called  "  the  first  of  the  gods,  the  only  one 
who  does  not  change."  "  I  am,"  thus  continues  the  deity, 
"  Ea  in  his  first  sovereignty,"  that  is  to  say,  Ea  as  the 
first  ruler  over  all  that  exists,  and  as  such,  "  the  great 
sod  self-existing,  the  creator  of  his  name,  the  lord  of  all 
gods,  who  is  upheld  by  none  among  the  gods."  This  god 
comes  to  view  out  of  darkness  and  concealment,  and 
is  the  same  as  the  hidden  god,  only,  inasmuch  as  he 
reveals  himself,  he  bears  another  name.  He  is  not  created, 
but  exists  of  himself.  He  himself  creates  his  name,  that  is, 
his  being,  and  because,  as  we  read  in  another  passage,  all 
the  gods  are  said  to  be  only  manifestations  or  members  of 
Ea,  he  is  Lord  of  all  the  gods.  In  this  character  he  is 
symbolically  represented  by  the  beetle  (choper),  an  emblem 
which  is  proved  to  have  been  a  very  favourite  one  among 
the  Egyptians,  by  the  innumerable  scarabaei  in  every  sort 
of  material  that  have  come  down  to  us.  This  symbol 
implies  the  idea  of  change  of  being  through  transforma- 
tion ;  and  since  the  transformation  here  referred  to  is  that 
of  Turn  into  Ea,  he  is  under  this  form  frequently  called 
Tum-ra- choper,  the  hidden  one,  who  alters  his  form  to  the 
revealed  one.  Another  frequently  recurring  emblem  is 
"  Ea  in  his  egg."  The  egg  is  the  world-egg,  a  conception 
found  in  other  mythologies  likewise,  and  signifying,  in 
fact,  chaos.  The  Egyptians  looked  upon  Ea  as  its  germ, 
the  motive-power  who,  by  moving  himself,  was  the  original 
cause  of  motion.  This  corresponds  to  the  signification  of 
his  name ;  Ea  denotes  creator,  for  it  must  be  derived  from 
a  root  which  means  to  make,  to  create. 

Thus,  as  in  America  and  other  places,  he  is  the  soul 
of  the  sun,  regarded  as  creator  of  the  universe.  To  the 
popular  conception  he  was  the  visible  sun,  the  sun  by  day 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  79 

born  in  the  east,  and  passing  into  union,  with  the  west.1 
But,  as  is  proved  by  his  name,  the  cosmogonic  conception 
of  him  is  the  more  ancient.  It  can  be  easily  explained 
how  he  is  called  the  divine  ruler,  or  the  first  ruler  of 
heaven,  inasmuch  as,  not  dependent  on  any  of  the  other 
gods  who  all  rank  beneath  him,  he  passes  undisturbed  on 
his  way  through  the  heavens. 

Thus  he  finishes  his  appointed  course,  but  he  does  not 
die  for  ever  ;  "  he  was  yesterday,  he  knows  the  morrow ; " 
the  past  and  the  future  are  his.  Now,  however,  begins  the 
conflict.  God  himself  has  made  ready  a  field  of  battle  in 
the  stent  of  the  crods  ;  at  his  command  it  is  set  in  order. 
This  is  a  rough  mythological  expression,  for  it  is  God's  will 
that  his  various  manifestations  should  be  at  strife  with 
each  other ;  rejuvenescence,  renewal  of  life,  in  which  the 
idiosyncrasy,  the  being  of  the  deity,  consists,  cannot  take 
place  but  through  conflict.2  The  battle-field  is  the  land  of 
the  west,  Amenti  the  portal  of  the  kingdom  of  the  dead, 
or  the  kingdom  itself  as  a  whole,  and  there  is  the  proper 
abode  of  the  great  deity,  whose  name  is  a  mystery  known 
only  to  himself.  For  in  this  sense  the  words  are  to  be 
understood,  which  are  uttered  by  the  deity  or  by  the  de- 
ceased identified  with  him.  "  I  know  the  name  of  the 
great  god  whose  abode  is  there."  The  interpreter,  who 
would  have  us  understand  from  this  that  the  name  was 
"  spirit  of  Ea,"  comes  certainly  nearest  to  what  the  ancient 
author  meant  to  indicate.  For  now  the  deity  becomes 
"  the  great  Bennu,  who  is  honoured  in  An."  Bennu  is  the 
soul  of  Ba  {Bennu  ha  en  Ea),  and  was  therefore,  when  the 
mythologies  of  Abydos  and  Heliopolis  were  commingled, 
regarded  often  as  a  form  of  Osiris.  The  sun-god,  after  his 
setting,  has  now  become  a  soul,  and  as,  in  his  glory  in  the 
heavens,  in  his  glittering  body,  he  was  represented  as  a 
sparrow-hawk,  so  in  his  concealment  as  a  soul  in  the  realm 

1  Brugsch,  Reiseberichte,  p.  38.        M.  Lepage  Renouf  is  of  another  opi- 

2  Nuter,  the  generic  name  for  the  nion.  See  his  Hibbert  Lectures,  p. 
gods,  signifies,  according   to  E.   de     93  et  scq. 

ïtoitgé,  ';  the  self -rejuvenating  ones/' 


So  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

of  the  dead  he  is  represented  by  the  Bennu-bird,  the  heron, 
which,  as  a  bird  of  passage,  is  a  symbol  of  immortality  and 
of  return  to  life.1 

This  is  expressly  stated  in  the  sentences  that  follow : 
"  I  am  Chem  in  his  appearing,  whose  two  feathers  are  set 
upon  his  head."  Chem  is  the  ithyfallic  god,  the  special 
god  of  masculine  generative  power.  He  is  the  youthful 
new  sun-god,  regarded  as  self-begetting,  and  as  husband  of 
his  mother,  a  mystic  expression  indicating  that  in  all  his 
forms  the  deity  is  one  and  the  same,  and  constantly  renews 
himself  by  virtue  of  his  own  never-dying  force.  Hence  it 
is  that  this  form  of  the  deity,  offensive  to  our  modern  ideas 
of  chastity,  is  here  identified  with  Ea,  and  in  the  Osirian 
mythology  with  Horos,  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  and  later  at 
Thebes  with  Amun. 

Thus  he  has  at  length  arrived  at  his  divine  abode, "  in  the 
sun-mountain  of  his  father  Turn."  Thence  he  set  out,  and 
thither  at  last  he  returns  home,  but  only  to  set  out  again 
from  it  in  a  never-endincr  circuit. 

o 

This  is  now  described  in  the  continuation  of  chap,  xvii., 
so  far  as  it  is  possible,  conjecturally  and  by  analogy  from 
what  goes  before,  to  discriminate  the  ancient  text  from 
notes  and  additions. 

From  this  continuation  it  appears  that  the  sojourn  with 
Turn  is  for  the  sun-god  a  mode  of  purification.  The  great 
hidden  god  takes  away  all  his  sins  and  makes  him  clean ; 
in  other  words,  by  this  return  to  his  essence  the  sun-god 
perpetually  renews  his  body  and  his  purity  or  radiancy. 
He  next  proceeds  onward  in  his  path  from  Turn  towards 
the  blessed  heavenly  fields.  He  says,  "  I  am  a  soul  and 
its  twins,"  or,  "  My  soul  is  becoming  two  twins."  This 
means  that  the  soul  of  the  sun-god  is  one,  but,  now  that 
it  is  born  again,  it  divides  into  two  principal  forms.  Ea 
was  worshipped  at  An  under  his  two  prominent  mani- 

1  This  heron  appears  to  have  de-  the  self-begetting  Bennu.     Brugsch, 

rived  its  name  from  a  word  signify-  Hier.  dem.  W.  B.,  p.  397.    If  this  be 

ing  "  to  be  of  the  masculine  gender,"  correct  the  symbolism  may  be  diffe- 

and  is  called  also  bennu-cheper-tes(f,  rent  from  that  indicated  in  the  text. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  Si 

festations,  as  Tum  the  primal  god,  or  more  definitely,  god 
of  the  sun  at  evening,  and  as  Harmachis,  god  of  the  new 
sun,  the  sun  at  dawn. 

The  Ea  worship  of  Heliopolis  had  a  distinctly  dualistic 
character.  Upon  two  door-posts,  which  still  remain  there, 
Brugsch  read  on  one  side  the  praises  of  Tum,  on  the  other 
a  record  of  homage  paid  to  Harmachis.  The  name  of  the 
sanctuary  already  referred  to,  Ha-ben-ben,  the  two  pyra- 
mids, is  likewise  in  close  connection  with  this.  Harmachis 
(Har-m-achu),  usually,  in  the  popular  conception,  the 
morning-  sun  in  contrast  to  Tum  the  evening  sun,  is 
"  Horos  on  the  horizon,"  or  "  Horos  radiant,"  as  his  name 
imports,  and  therefore  the  sun-god  as  he  appears  shining 
in  glory.  His  emblem,  the  sphinx  with  a  lion's  body 
and  human  head,  is  well  known.  It  is  the  symbol  of 
reasoning  power,1  of  power  enlightened  and  disciplined 
by  reason. 

As  victor  over  the  powers  of  darkness,  the  sun-god  is 
next  found  crowned  as  a  king.  "  It  is  I,"  thus  he 
exclaims,  "  who  have  received  the  double  crown  with 
delight;  it  is  I  on  whom  the  burden  has  been  laid  of 
ruling  over  the  gods  in  the  day  when  the  world  is  set 
in  order  by  the  lord  of  the  universe."  Then,  as  ruling 
prince,  as  king  of  the  day,  he  comes  forth  from  the  king- 
dom of  darkness  into  that  of  light,  and  as  god  of  the  day 
he  is  likewise  "  he  who  exterminates  plagues  and  rules 
the  course  of  the  seasons,"  and  likewise,  he  appears  to  be 
"  the  divine  beetle,  the  self-creating  one,  whose  substance 
exists  by  itself." 

The  beetle  (chepra,  or  choper)  is  a  very  common  repre- 
sentation of  Ea.  In  chap.  xv.  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  " 
he  appears  as  king,  with  the  full  name  of  Ea  Haremchu 
Chepra,  and  upon  his  head,  which  is  adorned  with  the 

1  As  the  visible  sun-god  in  general  is  thought  of  as  the  evening  sun. 
he  is  called  Har-m-achuti,  Horos  of  See  Brugsch,  D.  Aegypt.  Graber- 
the  two  horizons,  and  this  name  is  welt,  p.  35,  in  the  hymns  quoted 
thus  given  to  Tum  also  whenever  he     there. 

F 


82  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

double  crown,  he  has  the  goddess  ISTeb-un,  mistress  of 
being,  that  is,  the  divine  ureus-adder,  the  symbol  of 
sovereignty.  There,  too  (xv.  19,  20),  he  is  a  god  both 
beneficent  and  dreaded — beneficent  towards  the  good, 
dreaded  by  the  wTicked ;  for  he  is  the  righteous  one,  and 
he  passes  through  the  heaven  along  with  Ma,  the  goddess 
of  righteousness. 

We  must,  however,  guard  very  carefully  against  taking 
Ea  as  being  simply  the  sun.  It  appears  from  the  hymns 
addressed  to  Ea,  included  in  chap.  xv.  of  the  "  Book  of  the 
Dead,"  that  at  the  most  remote  period  it  was  already 
usual  to  distinguish  betwixt  the  s^od  and  the  manifesta- 
tions  of  him.  In  that  chapter  he  is  seemingly  identified 
with  the  sun ;  his  splendid  rising,  for  example,  is  referred 
to ;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  a  careful  distinction  was  made 
between  the  being  who  was  an  object  of  worship  and  his 
visible  representation.  The  sun's  disk  was  called  "  his," 
"  his  emblem."  He  journeys  in  his  disk,  and  is  designated 
as  the  ancient  unknown  one  in  his  mystery  (xv.  46). 
Even  when  men  look  at  him,  what  they  behold  is  nothing 
more  than  the  reflected  rays  of  his  glory;  even  before 
men's  eyes  he  still  walks  in  his  mystery.  That  there 
existed  a  full  conviction  of  the  unity  of  the  deity,  even 
when  he  was  called  by  various  names,  is  proved  by 
collective  names,  such  as  Ea-haremchu-chepra,  and  other 
similar  ones.  This  is,  at  least  in  Egypt,  no  new  doctrine 
resulting  from  later  theological  speculations.  It  is  found 
occurring  on  the  very  oldest  monuments.  Indeed,  the 
position  that  fetishism  and  the  worship  of  natural  objects 
and  phenomena  as  such  is  nothing  but  the  vulgar  cor- 
ruption of  an  originally  much  purer  religion,  nowhere 
appears  to  receive  more  striking  confirmation  than  in 
these  ancient  Egyptian  records.  But  although  the  facts 
on  which  this  argument  is  founded  are  correctly  inter- 
preted, and  the  Egyptian  religion  at  its  first  appearance 
is  already  far  above  animism  proper,  I  cannot  agree  in 
the  inference.     It  is  indeed  the  case  that  the  most  ancient 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  83 

Egyptian  religion,  so  far  as  it  is  known  to  us,  is  at  least 
simpler  than  it  was  in  later  times.  We  should,  however, 
infer  too  much  if  we  on  that  ground  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  worship  of  natural  objects  as  living  beings, 
through  whose  power  natural  phenomena  are  produced,  is 
a  corruption.  Such  worship  is  in  all  cases  the  original 
form,  and  it  must  also  be  the  ground  from  which  the 
Egyptian  religion  originally  sprang.  It  is  already  a  sym- 
bolic religion,  as  far  back  as  we  know  it,  but  the  symbols 
are  all  reformed  fetishes.  The  degeneration  which  may  be 
perceived  in  the  Egyptian  religion  is  a  retrogression  to  the 
earlier  standpoint,  a  revival  of  what  seemed  dead  long  ago, 
just  what  may  be  observed  in  all  the  higher  religions.1 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  worship  of  Ea,  I  quote  here  from 
the  hymns  in  chap.  xv.  of  the  "Book  of  the  Dead,"  according 
to  the  arrangement  of  Lefébure  and  after  his  transla- 
tion:2— 

"  Hail,  thou  who  art  come  as  Turn,  and  who  hast  been  the 
creator  of  the  gods  ! 3 

"Hail,  thou  who  art  come  as  soul  of  the  holy  souls  in 
Amenti ! 

"Hail,  supreme  among  the  gods,  who  by  thy  beauties  dost 
illumine  the  kingdom  of  the  dead  !• 

"Hail,  thou  who  comest  in  radiance  and  travellest  in  thy  disk ! 

"  Hail,  greatest  of  all  the  gods,  bearing  rule  in  the  highest, 


l?  öJ 


rei 


«mine:  in  the  nethermost  heaven  ! 


1  See  my  Outlines  of  the  History  gods"  Lefébure's  translation  is  to 
of  Religion,  p.  8  et  seq.  be   preferred.      In   other    passages 

2  E.  Lefébure,  Traduction  com-  Turn  occurs  constantly  as  the  crea- 
parée  des  hymnes  au  soleil  compo-  tor.  Comp.  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  i. 
sant  le  xve  chapitre  du  Rit.  fun.  Eg.,  1 7,  var. ,  cited  by  Brugsch,  Wörter- 
p.  123  et  seq.  Lefébure  divides  the  buch,  voce  Kema.  Likewise  "Book 
lines  29-33  into  couplets,  and  ar-  of  the  Dead,"  lxxix.,  at  the  beginning 
ranges  together  the  five  first  and  the  where  it  is  said:  "  Maker  of  the 
five  last  halves.  His  important  heaven,  creator  of  the  beings  pro- 
work  has  also  been  made  use  of  in  duced  out  of  the  world,  who  makes 
reference  to  the  immediately  pre-  all  kinds  (sorts)  of  forms  of  exist- 
ceding  part  of  the  text.  ence,  calls  the  gods  into  life,  creates 

3  So  Lefébure.  Birch  (in  Bunsen,  himself  lord  of  life,  who  fills  the 
Egypt's  Place,  pt.  v.  p.   170)  tran-  gods  with  fulness  of  life." 

slates  "  created  by  the  creator  of  the 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

"Hail,  thou  who  dost  penetrate  within  the  nethermost 
heaven  (tiau),  and  hast  command  of  all  the  gates  ! 

"  Hail,  among  the  gods,  weigher  of  words  in  the  kingdom  of 
the  dead  (chernuter) ! 

"  Hail !  thou  art  in  thine  abode  (nest)  creator  of  the  nether- 
most heaven  by  thy  virtue  ! 

"  Hail,  renowned  and  glorified  god  !  Thy  enemies  fall  upon 
their  scaffold ! 

"  Hail !  thou  hast  slain  the  guilty,  thou  hast  destroyed  Apap 
(the  serpent  of  darkness) ! " 

It  is  impossible  to  read  this  song  of  praise  in  any  degree 
attentively  without  seeing,  what  also  results  from  all  our 
former  statements,  that  Ra-Tum  and  Osiris  are  not  really 
different,  and  that  the  Heliopolitan  mythology  is,  in  fact, 
the  same  as  that  of  Abydos.  And  naturally  so,  for,  as  we 
saw,  the  Osirian  myth,  too,  was  originally  a  sun-myth. 
Perhaps  it  was  only  at  a  later  period  that  it  was  asso- 
ciated at  Heliopolis  with  eschatological  doctrine  through 
being  commingled  with  the  southern  myth,  and  in  that 
city  it  may  originally  have  had  a  more  cosmogonic  char- 
acter, as  among  the  Asiatic  Mesopotamians. 

The  two  remaining  chief  gods  of  Heliopolis  whom  I  can- 
not leave  unmentioned  are  Shu  and  Tefnut,  and  they  too 
are  cosmogonic  beings.  They  are  the  two  lion-gods  of  whom 
it  is  said  in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  chap,  iii.,  that  they 
light  Turn  as  he  comes  out  from  his  place  in  the  heavenly 
ocean.  An  invocation  in  chap.  xvii.  is  thus  translated  by 
De  Rouge',  "  O  Ra  in  his  egg,  who  shines  through  his  disk, 
who  glitters  on  the  horizon,  who  ....  hast  an  abhor- 
rence of  remaining  stationary,  who  walkest  on  the  supports 
of  the  god  Shu !  Thou  who  hast  not  thy  second  among 
the  gods,  who  brings  forth  the  wind  by  the  fire  of  his 
mouth,  and  who  lights  up  the  two  worlds  by  his  bright- 
ness." That  this  last  phrase  applies  to  Shu  and  not  Ra 
is  evident  from  a  passage  at  the  commencement  of  chap, 
lv.,  where  it  is  said,  "  I  am  Shu  who,  in  advance  of  the 
light,  drives  or  compels  the  winds  onwards  to  the  confines 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  85 

of  heaven,  to  the  confines  of  the  earth,  even  to  the  confines 
of  space."  This  has  the  same  signification  as  the  image 
elsewhere  employed  where  the  dogs,  symbolical  of  the 
winds,  follow  him  swiftly. 

Shu  is  the  cosmic  heat  and  light  principle,  the  world- 
egg  within  which  Ea  is  said  to  be,1  and  hence  he  is  like- 
wise called  the  abode  of  the  sun.  This  is  expressed 
symbolically  by  saying  that  he  is  found  in  the  centre  of 
the  bark  of  the  sun  (hur  sek  ti).  This  centre  point  is 
regarded  as  the  quickening  creative  power.  In  other 
not  less  important  texts  he  is  without  doubt  the  god  of 
the  air,  the  atmosphere,  and  as  such  he  is  depicted  as 
supporting  the  heavens,  a  form  mentioned  below.  He 
is  also  ("Book  of  the  Dead,"  lxvii.)  he  who  opens  the 
gate,  the  gate  leading  to  the  place  where  the  bark  of 
the  sun  is.  For  this  reason  he,  like  all  the  gods  of  Helio- 
polis,  is  moreover  the  son  of  Ka  begotten  by  Turn,  but 
born  in  fact  without  a  mother,  for  it  is  said  of  him  that 
he  be^ot  himself  in  the  womb  of  the  goddess  of  heaven. 
He  is  the  lord  who  came  forth  alone  from  the  heavenly 
sea,  Nun,  over  which  in  the  beginning  the  quickening 
breath  of  the  deity  passed.2  As  the  principle  of  creation 
he  is  uncreated ;  with  the  beginning  of  his  existence  the 
sun  began  to  exist.  He  is  the  life-giver,  and  like  all  the 
gods  that  are  to  be  taken  as  representing  the  first  cause, 
has  the  marvellous  designation  bestowed  on  him  of  young- 
old,  an  expression  by  which  the  Egyptians  sought  to  indi- 
cate eternal  youth.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why  he  was 
identified  with  the  goddesses  Oer  Hakau  and  Ma,  the  Great 
Power  and  Righteousness,  for  he  is  distinctively  power 
which  manifests  itself  by  operating  in  matter.  By  him 
righteousness  and  truth  reign ;  in  short,  by  him,  Order,  of 
which  Ma  is  the  personification,  reigns  in  the  creation. 
The  root  whence  his  name  is  derived  has  a  twofold  signi- 
fication, first  that  of  scorching,  and  secondly  that  of  stretch- 

1  Chabas,  Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  p.  96.         2  Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  23,  53,  54. 


S6  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

ing  out,  growing.  Both  of  these  correspond  to  his  nature  : 
as  the  vital  glowing  heat  of  the  universe  he  is  the  scorch- 
ing  one,  and  he  is  the  outstretcher  in  virtue  of  his  being 
the  one  who  lights  up  the  vault  of  heaven  and  "  divides 
the  waters  which  are  under  from  those  which  are  above 
the  firmament."  1  In  the  latter  office  he  is  depicted  as  a 
man  who  with  uplifted  arms  supports  the  vault  of  heaven 
in  the  shape  of  a  woman  bending  forward  and  supporting 
herself  on  her  hands  and  feet,  and  this  symbol  forms  the 
determinative  emblem  of  the  root  of  Shu.  Hence  it  is  that 
Ea  the  sun-god  goes  on  his  props,  for  in  the  symbolic  repre- 
sentation, this  deity  travels  along  the  back  of  the  goddess 
of  heaven.  ("Book  of  the  Dead,"  xvii.  24,  and  34  glosses.) 
That,  seemingly  at  a  later  period,  Shu  was  united  with 
Ea,  and  thus  made  like  most  other  Egyptian  chief  gods 
into  a  sun-god  is  natural  enough,  for  the  germ  of  the 
world-egg  is  in  fact  the  sun.  He  thus  became,  as  the  god 
of  the  scorching  sun-heat,  as  the  dread  sun-god,  most 
closely  related  to  Set;  and  the  ass,  the  animal  of  Set,  which 
is  also  called  Shu,  appears  to  have  belonged  to  him  as  well.2 
In  the  mystic  language  of  the  Egyptians  this  is  expressed 
as  follows  : — "  Shu  has  fused  himself  into  the  substance 
of  his  father  Ea,  whose  enemies  he  seeks  to  destroy,"  or 
"  the  Self  (Ka)  of  Shu  unites  itself  with  that  of  Ea ; "  in 
other  words,  Ea,  as  destroyer  of  evil  powers,  as  the  dreadful 
god  is  endued  with  the  character  of  Shu.  He  wears  then 
the  form  assumed  by  Ea  the  chastiser,  that  of  a  male  cat. 
Eor  the  same  reason  he  is  identified  with  Horos-tem, 
Horos  of  the  sword,  and  is  represented  not  only  as  a  war- 


1  Book  of  the  Dead,  xcviii.  The  god  is  indicated  by  this  name,  or 
deceased  as  he  reaches  from  earth  to  whether  it  is  a  mere  play  on  the 
heaven  compares  himself  to  Shu.  sounds    of   words.       The    two    fea- 

2  A  play  upon  words  such  as  this  thers  are  a  common  ornament  of 
is  very  common  in  Egyptian  symbol-  reigning  gods.  The  name  Kai-Shu- 
ism.  Thus  Shu  is  also  called  Kai-  ti  may  perhaps  have  some  connec- 
iïhu-ti,  "  who  erects  two  feathers  ;  "  tion  with  that  of  the  mysterious 
Shu  also  signifying  feather.  It  is  deity  Kai,  who  so  early  as  the  sixth 
now  scarcely  possible  to  say  whe-  dynasty  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
ther    some    real    attribute    of    the  the  gods. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIO POLIS.  87 

god  with  lance  and  horns,  bnt  likewise  as  chastiser  of  the 
wicked  in  the  under  world  ("  Book  of  the  Dead,"  xc.) 

The  wife  of  Shu  is  Tefnut  or  Tef.  By  her  he  effects 
the  birth  of  all  things.  Like  him,  she  is  generally  de- 
picted as  a  lioness  or  as  a  cat,  a  form  very  common  with 
the  goddesses  of  northern  Egypt.  These  facts  lead  us 
to  infer  that  she  too  was  a  nature  power.  Her  name, 
signifying  "humidity,  foam,"  also  bears  witness  that 
this  must  have  been  her  original  character.  She  is  the 
ocean  out  of  which  all  that  is  came  into  being,  personi- 
fied as  a  living  divine  being.  She  is  the  cosmic  water, 
or  more  precisely,  the  foam  that  has  risen  on  its  sur- 
face through  the  agitating  motive  power  of  the  glowing 
Shu,  whose  breath  the  winds  are.  Like  her  the  Aphro- 
dite-Astarte  of  the  Cretans  was  born  of  the  foam  of  the  sea. 
Tefnut,  however,  usually  appears  in  a  form  that  would 
lead  us  to  a  totally  different  conception  of  her  nature. 
This  is  the  ureus- adder,  the  symbol  of  regal  power  on  the 
heads  of  princes  and  gods,  and  the  common  emblem  of  all 
female  deities.  Thus  Shu  is  said  to  have  his  wife  as  pro- 
tectress upon  his  head,1  which  can  refer  to  nothing  but 
this.  In  this  instance,  however,  Shu  is  already  identified 
with  the  sun,  for  in  his  usual  character  he  wears  only  an 
ostrich  feather  on  his  head.  Tefnut  is  likewise  usually 
called  "  the  only  one  upon  the  head  of  her  father,"  that  is, 
of  Ba  the  sun-god  as  creator.  On  the  surface  there  seems 
to  be  no  connection  between  these  two  representations 
of  Tefnut.  The  ureus  on  the  head  of  the  sun-god  is  em- 
blematic of  light.  Whether  it  occurs  as  the  goddess 
ISTeb-un,  the  mistress  of  being,  or  as  Neb-anch,  the  mistress 
of  life,  or  as  Sechet,  it  denotes  always  "  the  sparkling,"  or 
"  the  sun's  disk  in  his  wrath,"  and  is  thus  a  personification 
of  the  scorching  glow  of  the  sun.2  The  serpent  was  em- 
blematic of  the  moist  warmth  as  well  as  of  the  withering 

1  See  Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  p.  24.  the  Egyptian  deity  referred  to  here 

2  Lefébure,  chap.  xv.   du  Riteul,  and  the  Hebrew  serafs,  whose  name 
pp.    28,    29.     A   very  apt  compari-  signifies  "  the  consuming  ones. " 
son  is  made  by  this  scholar  between 


83  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

heat  of  fire  or  the  burning  rays  of  the  sun.  Tefnut  is 
accordingly  the  feminine  aspect  of  Shu,  the  god  of  heat 
and  light,  and  hence  unites  in  herself  both  attributes. 
As  wife  of  Shu  the  <?erm  of  creation,  she  is  the  foaming 
water ;  as  wife  of  Shu  the  scorcher,  she  is  the  enraged 
puffed-up  adder  whose  sting  is  deadly.  Thus  she  is  the 
productive  and  destructive  power  of  nature  combined  in 
one  being.  As  tef  means  also  "to  vomit,"  she  is  not 
^infrequently  pictured  as  a  lioness  vomiting  flames. 

Such  are  the  principal  gods  of  Heliopolis  called  by  the 
Egyptians  the  "  lords  of  An."  They  present  to  us  an 
aspect  slightly  different  from  that  of  the  gods  of  Thinis. 
Their  character  of  nature-gods  comes  indeed  a  little  less 
clearly  into  view  with  the  gods  of  this  circle  than  with 
those  of  the  Osirian  circle.  The  myth  of  Heliopolis  repre- 
sents the  conflict  between  light  and  darkness,  but  in  it  Ea 
himself  takes  more  the  part  of  a  king,  general  of  his  army  : 
the  warrior-god  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  is  a  Horos 
of  a  lower  rank.  At  the  time  of  the  commencement  of 
the  new  year,  the  combat  has  come  to  an  end,  and  Apap 
pierced  through  is  thrown  down  into  the  sea.  This  victory 
is,  however,  neither  decisive  nor  final ;  the  conflict  begins 
again  without  ceasing.  Every  morning,  even  when  Ea  is 
mounting  into  his  bark,  Apap  makes  an  attempt  to  stop 
him,  but  in  vain.  Eour  times  a  year  the  opposition  of  the 
demon  of  darkness  is  made  with  redoubled  energy,  and 
Apap  contests  the  right  of  Ea  to  be  king,  but  on  each 
occasion  is  victoriously  repulsed. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  see  here  nothing  but  a  poetic  re- 
presentation of  the  conflict  between  light  and  darkness  in 
nature.  What  we  have  here  was  at  the  first  an  article  of 
faith  among  the  peoples  of  antiquity.  They  did  not  know 
with  scientific  certainty  that  every  day  darkness  must  give 
way  to  light,  that  the  apparent  course  of  the  stars  is  subject 
to  fixed  laws  and  to  annual  revolutions.  The  life  of  the 
sun,  renewed  each  morning,  was  in  their  eyes  a  miracle,  a 
result  of  the  superior  power  of  the  gods  of  light.     And 


THE  RELIGION  OF  HELIOPOLIS.  89 

although  the  phenomenon  was  daily  renewed  throughout 
the  course  of  innumerable  centuries,  its  permanence  was 
not  believed  in  or  relied  on,  except  by  virtue  of  an  act  of 
faith,  of  which  the  myths  are  the  expression,  the  dogmas. 
From  remote  antiquity  the  myth  of  Ea  was  associated 
with  the  hope  of  immortality  by  resurrection,  an  idea 
which  is  moreover  found  attached  to  similar  myths  in  other 
mythologies,  as  for  example  to  those  of  the  Hindoo  my- 
thology. Chapter  xvii.  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  one  of 
the  most  ancient  texts  known,  furnishes  proof  of  this. 
According  to  chap,  cviii.  1 1,  of  the  same  book,  the  de- 
ceased will  know  the  mysterious  force  by  which  the  power 
of  Apap  is  broken.  The  good  and  the  wicked  in  this 
world  and  in  the  other  are  divided  into  two  hostile  camps, 
the  soldiers  of  one  fighting  under  the  leadership  of  Ea, 
those  of  the  other  placing  themselves  under  the  orders  of 
Apap.  Hence  the  significance  of  the  myth  was  not  exclu- 
sively physical,  for  with  ancient  peoples,  physical  order 
and  moral  order  are  not  clearly  distinguished.  While  light 
and  darkness  were  thus  with  the  Egyptians  not  purely 
symbols,  they  were  nevertheless  used  by  them,  as  they  are 
by  us,  as  synonyms  for  good  and  evil. 


(    90     ) 


CHAPTEE  V. 

RELIGION   UNDER   THE   OLD   KINGDOM. 

The  seat  of  what  has  been  called  the  Old  Kingdom  of 
Egypt  was  Memphis.      This  town  (Mennefer,  the  good 
abode)  is  traditionally  said  to  have  been  founded,  or  at 
least  extended  and  fortified,  by  Menes — that  is  to  say,  by 
the  ancient  dynasty  of  which  this  name  is  the  personifica- 
tion— with  the  view  of  holding  the  barbarians  of  the  north 
in  check.     The  god  of  Memphis  was  Ptah,  or,  as  it  was 
pronounced  there,  Phtah,  and  hence  the  town  is  designated 
likewise  Ha  Ka  Ptah,  the  place  of  the  worship,  or  of  the 
soul  of  Ptah.     There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  a  deity  of 
this  name  was  already  worshipped  in  that  district  before 
the  Thinitic  kings  made  it  their  seat,  but  from  that  time 
forward  this  god  occupied  a  high  place  in  the  Egyptian 
religion.     It  may  be  regarded  as  certain  that  the  prede- 
cessors of  Menes  already  exercised  a  general  authority 
over  Upper  Egypt,  before  they  were  in  a  position  to  unite 
both   lands    under   one  sceptre.     Hence,  no   doubt,   the 
religion  of  their  seat,  Thinis-Abydos,  became  the  prevail- 
ing one  in  the  south.     In  the  north,  Heliopolis,  with  its 
essentially  similar  theology,  was  from  time  immemorial 
renowned  for  its  antiquity,  and  for  the  learning  of  its 
priests.     But  now  the  day  of  Memphis  had  come.    Helio- 
polis was,  indeed,  not  cast  into  the  shade  altogether.     The 
monuments  show  that  the  Thinitic  kings  brought  their 
own  Osiris  worship  thither  as  well  as  to  Memphis,  but 
they  would  never  have  ventured  to  pass  over  the  principal 
deity  of  the  new  locality  in  which  they  had  established 
themselves,  nor  to  deny  him  the  highest  honours  there. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  91 

Accordingly,  a  tradition  which  is  to  be  depended  on 
informs  us  that  Menes  was  likewise  founder  of  the 
magnificent  temple  at  Heliopolis  dedicated  to  Ptah.  This 
temple  was  situated  on  the  white  or  southern  wall,  a 
structure  which,  like  the  northern  wall,  under  the  patron- 
age of  the  goddess  Keith,  was,  it  would  seem,  a  fortifica- 
tion  not  unlike  the  wall  of  China,  and  had  been  erected 
with  the  same  object.  Ptah  was  hence  often  called 
"  the  holy  one  of  the  white  wall,"  or,  simply  "  Ptah  of 
his  southern  wall."  As  at  Heliopolis,  the  kings  were 
consecrated,  and  the  festival  of  the  union  of  the  two 
countries  was  celebrated  in  his  sanctuary  and  under  his 
patronage.  We  may,  at  least,  take  it  for  granted  that 
so  early  as  the  founding  of  Memphis  this  festival  was 
already  instituted,  though  wTe  have  no  account  of  its 
celebration  previous  to  the  time  of  Pepi  of  the  sixth 
dynasty.  It  is  strange  to  find  Ptah  often  entitled  bearer 
of  the  white  crown,  the  crown  of  Upper  Egypt,  and  I 
can  only  explain  this  as  having  come  about  through  his 
identification  with  Osiris-Sekru. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  a  more  spiritual  and  more 
moral  significance  has  been  attributed  to  Ptah  than  to  the 
other  gods.  If  there  be  any  truth  in  this,  he  must  have 
gained  it  by  means  of  the  priests,  for  originally  he  was, 
like  so  many  others,  a  cosmogonic  deity.  The  significa- 
tion of  his  name  is,  "  he  who  forms,"  not,  as  is  constantly 
asserted,  "he  who  opens."1  In  accordance  with  this  is  a 
delineation  of  him,  in  which  he  is  represented  as  busily 
eogaged  in  drawing  a  child."  2  Accordingly,  the  Greeks 
compared  him  rightly  to  their  Hephaistos,  the  god  of  the 
cosmic  fire,  as  creative  formative  power.  One  of  Ptah's 
usual  names  is  Totunen,  or  Tanen,  which,  it  is  thought, 
denotes  likewise  "  he  who  forms,"  though,  in  the  opinion 
of  some,  it  means  the  earth.3     It  is  certain  that  Tanen 

1  From  patahu  =  to  form,  of  which  2  In  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  ii.  i.  249. 

the  derivative  signification  must  be  3  So     Lefébure,     chap.     xv.     du 

"  to  model,"  and  not  from^a^w^to  Eituel,  p.  95. 
open.     Brugsch,  W.B.,  p.  527  et  scq. 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

also  occurs  as  a  surname  of  other  gods,  as  well  as  alone 
by  itself.  Ptah,  as  god  of  the  hidden  fire  operating  in  the 
world,  may  very  well  be  called  god  of  the  earth,  and  the 
green  colour  given  to  him  on  the  monuments  favours  this 

o  o 

explanation.  Sometimes  it  is  said  that  he  is  invisible. 
Every  deity  came  into  being  after  him,  the  great  hidden 
one,  and  his  image  is  not  known.  He  is  hence  represented 
emblematically  as  a  mummy  concealed  in  its  chest.1 

In  his  character  of  "  he  who  forms,"  he  bestows  new 
flesh  and  new  limbs  on  the  deceased ; 2  as  creator  of  the 
world  he  establishes  all  that  is  born,  procreates  and 
makes  all  things  that  are.  The  gods  are  said  to  have 
come  out  of  his  mouth,  men  from  his  eye.  If  I  rightly 
understand  this  metaphor,  it  signifies  that  he  quickened 
into  life  the  higher  world,  the  world  of  gods,  or,  as  it  is 
'  otherwise  expressed,  all  that  is  made,  by  his  word,  but 
that  he  created  men  by  means  of  his  eye,  the  sun.  Horos- 
Ea  was  usually  looked  upon  as  being  the  creator  of  men 
par  excellence,  that  is,  of  true  Egyptians.  We  encounter 
here  the  same  intermixture  of  purer  and  more  sensuous 
representation  that  is  found  in  all  myths  of  creation,  even 
in  those  of  the  Hebrews.  Side  by  side  with  expressions 
such  as  "  thy  spirit  is  to  be  revered  for  its  creations,"  are 
found  others  grossly  materialistic,  like  "  with  thy  hands 
thou  hast  set  in  order  created  things  in  the  heavenly 
ocean."  The  appellations  of  Life-giver  and  Creator  of 
phenomenal  forms  which  he  bears  belong  likewise  to  the 
same  set  of  ideas. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  all  these  attributes  were, 
from  the  remotest  antiquity,  ascribed  to  Ptah,  and  whe- 
ther, as  was  afterwards  the  case,  he  was  then  placed  on  an 
equality  with  the  supreme  deity,  the  first  created  or  un- 
created, who  brought  himself  forth  and  formed  his  own 
members ;  and  whether,  at  a  period  so  early,  he  was  con- 

1  For    this    and     the    following     De  Evangeliespiegel,    printed  sepa- 
passage  compare    Pleyte,   Een  lof-     rately. 
sang    aan    Ptah,    an   article    from         2  Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  p.  25. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  93 

ceivecl  of  as  god  of  the  under- world,  who  reveals  himself  in 
things  visible.     This  is  not  impossible.     The  most  ancient 
portions  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  contain  ideas  in  har- 
mony with  this,  and  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  priests 
of  Memphis,  even  at  an  early  period,  transferred  these  to 
their  god.     In  the  earliest  times,  however,  he  certainly 
was  not  yet  connected  with  the  sun,  as  he  came  to  be  in 
more  recent  times  to  which  we  must  apparently  relegate 
the  epithets  of  "  Lord  of  the  long  times,"  "  The  honourable, 
golden,  beautiful,  and  of  comely  face,"   that  are  bestowed 
upon  him  in  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
dynasties.    The  appellations,  however,  which  mark  him  as 
god  of  order  and  righteousness,  and  likewise  of  truth,  are 
undoubtedly  ancient  and  primitive.     He  is  lord  of  the  ell 
(ma)  that  serves  to  secure  suum  cuique,  and  the  high  value 
of  which  must  have  been  especially  felt  in  a  land  like 
Egypt,  where  every  year  the  inundations  obliterated  the 
boundary-marks  between  the  fields.     He  is  always  very 
closely  connected  with  Ma,  goddess  of  righteousness  and 
truth,  whose  name  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  ell,  and  de- 
rived from  the  same  root,  and  he  wears  her  emblem  on 
his  head.1 

As  the  invisible  shaper  of  the  universe  he  is  necessarily, 
in  virtue  of  his  office,  endued  with  the  dignity  of  god  of 
justice ;  and  when  we  find  it  said  of  him  in  later  times 
that  he  is  come  to  give  beneficent  laws  to  men,2  or  that  he 
is  the  holy  god  who  loves  good,  and  establishes  thereupon 
his  mighty  supremacy,3  we  can  see  that  these  are  ideas 
that  have  been  logically  evolved  from  the  main  conception. 
The  relationship  between  the  Egyptian  Ptah-worship 
and  the  Patek-worship  of  the  Phoenicians  was  long  ago 
recognised,  so  that,  in  later  times  at  least,  the  two  were 
confounded  with  each  other.     This  is  seen,  for  instance,  in 

1  As  lord  of  things  that  are  true  2  Inscription    at    Sararieh,    near 

and  righteous,  he  is,  like  Thot,  in-  Memphis,   cited  by  Brugsch,  Eeise- 

voked   by  any  one  who  desires   to  berichte,  p.  87. 

justify  himself.    See  Lepsius,_Zeits.,  3  See  Pleyte,  op  cit.  ad  sup. 
186S,  p.  2. 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

a  passage  of  Herodotus  (iii.  36),  where  the  Greek  historian 
tells  how  Cambyses  paid  a  visit  to  the  temple  of  Heph- 
aistos  at  Memphis,  with  the  intention  of  seeing  the  image 
of  the  god.  By  Hephaistos,  Ptah  is  undoubtedly  meant. 
And  what  kind  of  image  did  he  then  see  ?  It  was,  says 
Herodotus,  like  the  Pateks  which  the  Phoenicians  carve 
upon  the  prow  of  their  ships  ;  it  was,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
form  of  a  dwarf. 

In  this  Herodotus  was  quite  correctly  informed.  The 
name  of  the  Pateks  and  that  of  Ptah  are  the  same.  Genuine 
Egyptian  images  of  the  latter  are  found  likewise  in  the 
form  of  a  dwarf,  a  form  in  which  other  gods  of  Egypt 
are  likewise  not  unusually  found.  It  is  significant  too, 
that  the  so-called  Tyrian  camp,  the  Phoenician  quarter  at 
Memphis,  was  just  over  against  the  very  south  wall  on 
which  the  temple  of  Ptah  was  erected. 

Was  Ptah- worship,  then,  a  Phoenician  cult  adopted  by 
the  Egyptians  ?  That  idea  has  been  entertained,  but  it  is 
assuredly  erroneous  ;  for  long  before  the  Phoenicians  inha- 
bited Egypt,  perhaps  even  before  they  had  left  their  original 
home  in  Mesopotamia,  Ptah  was  worshipped  at  Memphis. 
The  case  is  as  follows  :  The  Egyptians  often  celebrate  the 
beauty  of  the  countenance  of  Ptah,  and  represent  him  as  a 
youth  ;  but  the  antiquity  of  this  mode  of  representation  is 
not  proved,  and  the  idea  may  well  have  resulted  from  his 
being  confounded  with  the  sun-god.  It  is,  at  all  events, 
not  the  only  conception  that  was  formed  of  him.  The 
Kabirs,  the  eight  brother-gods  of  the  Phoenicians,  who 
likewise  had  their  temple  at  Memphis,  and  who  are  the 
same  as  the  Pateks,  are  called  by  Herodotus  the  children 
of  Ptah.  The  Egyptians,  however,  mention  only  one  son 
of  Ptah — Imhotep,  that  is,  "  I  come  in  peace," 1  the  final 
peace,  namely,  of  the  justified ;  or,  perhaps,  "  I  come  with 
an  offering."  He  is  a  personification  of  the  sacrificial  fire, 
and  of  the  worship  regulated  by  the  sacred  book  (hib),  and 

1  E.  de  Rongé,  in  the  Rev.  Arch.,     correct  interpretation  than  the  alter- 
1S61,  iv.  202,  considers  this  a  more     native  one. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  95 

he  is  always  represented  with  this  book  upon  his  knees, 
and  the  texts  designate  him  as  the  first  of  the  Cher-hib,  a 
class  of  priests  who  were  at  the  same  time  choristers  and 
physicians,  for  the  sacred  hymns  were  believed  to  have  a 
magical  power  as  remedies.     This  god   is   shown  by  a 
king's  name  of  the    fourth   dynasty  to  have  been  wor- 
shipped in   Egypt  at    a    very   early  period,   though   his 
worship  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  taken  a  prominent 
place.     The  Greeks  call  him  Asklepios,  but  likewise  the 
Eighth,  thus  showing  that  they  regarded  him  as  one  of 
the  Kabirs.     These  eight  brother  gods  are  the  same  as 
the  companions  of  the  architect  Chnum,  but  are  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  eight  companions  of.Thot,  who 
apparently  represent  the  four  cardinal  points.     There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  worship  of  Ptah  as  god  of  plastic  fire, 
and  of  the  eight  brothers  who,  in  the  character  of  cosmic 
deities,  were  represented  in  the  form  of  dwarfs,  flourished 
at  a  very  remote  period  in  the  country  where  Memphis 
was  founded  by  Mena.     The  Thinitic  kings  allowed  this 
worship  to  remain  undisturbed,  and,  at  least  at  Memphis, 
certainly  did  not  make  much  alteration  in  its  form.     But 
while  this  was  so,  there  arose  a  more  purely  Egyptian 
conception,  giving  to  the  god  a  human  form,  and  making 
of  him,  along  with  the  northern  goddess  Sechet,  or  along 
with  Ma  and  with  Imhotep,  who  is  nothing  else  than  a 
fiction  of   the   priests,  one   of   those   triads  that  are  so 
favourite  a  form  in  Egyptian  theology.1     The  Phoenicians 
adopted   the    ancient   unreformed   Ptah   worship,   either 
because  in  their  own  mythology  they  already  had  some- 
thing similar,  or  for  other  reasons. 

Along  with  Ptah,  the  two  goddesses  Sechet  (Bast)  and 
ISTeith  filled  a  prominent  place  in  Lower  Egypt  even  in 
very  ancient  times.  Both  are  frequently  mentioned  under 
the  first  dynasties,  and  at  Memphis  temples  were  dedi- 

1  Lepsius  thinks  that  Ptah,  as  the  sical,  Aelt.  Göttcrlcreis,  p.  40.  If  this 
more  spiritual  deity,  should  be  dis-  be  right,  it  is  true  of  this  particular 
tinguished  from  Ra,  the  more  phy-     form  of  Ptah  only. 


96  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

cated  to  both,"  as  being  deities  of  importance  in  the  north. 
The  priesthood  of  Neith  was,  like  that  of  Hathor,  exer- 
cised by  princesses  of  the  blood-royal,  the  same  person 
being  generally  priestess  for  both  goddesses.  The  chief 
seat  of  the  worship  of  Neith  was  Sai's,  and  she  appears  to 
have  been  especially  revered  by  the  Libyan  portion  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Lower  Egypt.1  Sechet  was  the  favourite 
goddess  of  the  Aamu  or  Arab  tribes,  and  was  worshipped 
most  of  all  at  Bubastis,  under  the  name  of  Bast.  She  was 
even  looked  upon  as  the  wife,  or  the  specially  beloved  [aa 
meri)  of  Ptah.  Eeference  will  be  made  further  on  to  both 
goddesses. 

Sekru  (the  slain,  the  killed  ?),  whose  name  occurs  in 
the  most  remote  antiquity,  may  very  probably  have  been  a 
form  of  Ptah  as  god  of  the  under  world.  He  was  afterwards 
associated  with  Ptah  and  Osiris  as  Ptah- Sokar- Osiris  (Ptah- 
sekru-asar),  yet  he  was  worshipped  at  Memphis  as  a  sepa- 
rate deity.  Besides  him,  we  also  find  mentioned,  under 
the  old  kingdom,  Chnum,  the  god  of  the  waterfalls,  whence, 
even  at  that  early  period,  stones  were  conveyed  for  the 
colossal  buildings  of  the  Memphitic  kings.  Munt,  the 
god  of  Hermonthis,  with  whom  we  shall  meet  further  on, 
is  also  supposed  to  be  mentioned  as  of  this  period. 

If  Herodotus  is  to  be  trusted,  an  important  modification 
of  Egyptian  worship  took  place  under  the  second  dynasty, 
for  he  relates  how  at  that  time,  under  Kin^  Kaiechos 
(Kakau),  the  sacred  animals  were  first  worshipped.  How 
extensively  this  worship  was  destined  to  prevail  is  well 
known.  The  very  name  of  Kakau  (the  images  or  genii,  a 
word  of  which  the  bull  is  the  symbol,  and  with  which  it 
is  synonymous)  tends  to  confirm  this  assertion.  It  was, 
in  fact,  the  name  given  to  the  bull  Apis. 

The  name,  however,  of  Menes,  Mena,  su^estin^  Mnevis, 
the  white  or  fawn-coloured  bull  of  Heliopolis,  would  lead 

1  Does  the  symbol  that  accom-  and  which  coincides  with  the  hiero- 
panies  the  Aamu  under  Abisa,  sculp-  glyph  of  Neith,  refer  to  the  worship 
tured  on  the  tomb  of  Chnumhotep,     of  this  deity  by  that  tribe  ? 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  97 

us  to  suppose  that  the  worship  qf  animals  was  already  prac- 
tised before  the  time  of  Kakau,  and  that  what  he  intro- 
duced was  nothing  more  than  the  worship  of  Apis.  Bino- 
thris  (Binuter,  a  divine  spirit  whose  symbol  is  a  ram  or 
he-goat)  comes  in  the  list  of  kings  after  Kaiechos  (Kakau), 
whence  it  may  be  inferred  that  just  as  the  latter  raised 
the  worship  of  the  bull  of  Memphis  to  the  rank  of  a 
state  religion,  so  his  successor  gave  the  same  position  to 
the  ram  of  Mendes.  At  all  events,  we  must  not  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  these  princes  themselves  instituted 
the  worship  of  animals.  No  king,  however  powerful, 
would  be  able  to  impose  customs  such  as  these,  had 
they  not  been  already  deeply  rooted  in  the  national 
habits.  Kaiechos  and  Binothris  doubtless  did  no  more 
than  grant  their  royal  sanction  to  these  forms  of  religion 
which  already  were  popular.  The  whole  tale  has,  more- 
over, an  extremely  unreliable  look.  Mena,  Kakau,  Binu- 
ter, are,,  in  my  opinion,  mere  inventions  as  kings'  names. 
In  reality,  they  are  the  principal  animals,  symbols  of 
genii  and  spirits  of  gods  that  have  been  transmuted  into 
kings.  In  all  the  peoples  of  antiquity  there  is  visible  a 
tendency  to  incorporate  mythological  tales  by  degrees 
into  their  history.  This  process  has  been  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  a  theory  by  Euhemerus,  but  it  is  not  a  mere 
invention  of  his.  In  virtue  of  it,  no  sooner  were  the 
symbolical  animals  we  refer  to  looked  upon  as  kings  than 
the  opinion  began  to  prevail  that  one  of  these  had  intro- 
duced the  worship  of  animals  into  Egypt.  The  he-goat 
and  the  ram  are  emblems  of  reproductive  power,  and  are 
symbolical  of  God  the  creator.  Chnum.  too,  wears  rams' 
horns  as  his  head-dress,  and  represents,  as  is  well  known, 
the  creator  as  the  sun  who  produces  the  wind,  or  the 
spirit  breathing  on  the  cosmic  waters  in  order  to  fertilise 
them. 

Animal  worship  soon  became  very  general  throughout 
Egypt.  In  later  times  no  place  of  any  importance  in  the 
country  was  without  its  sacred  animal,  which  was  treated 

G 


93  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

with  all  reverence,  was  feci  and  cared  for,  and  after  death 
was  carefully  embalmed  and  entombed.  At  Hermo- 
polis  (Sesennu,  Ashmunein),  the  town  of  Thot,  the  ibis, 
his  animal,  was  held  sacred,  and,  considering  the  ^reat 
homage  paid  to  this  god  of  the  priests,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  ibis  mummies  have  been  discovered 
both  at  Memphis  and  Thebes,  the  seats  of  empire,  and  at 
Abydos,  the  town  sacred  to  the  dead.  In  the  same  way 
the  dog-headed  ape  (kynokephalos),  the  symbolic  animal 
of  the  eight  companions  of  Thot,  was  held  sacred  at 
Hermopolis  and  Thebes.  Where  the  worship  of  Anubis 
prevailed — as,  for  instance,  at  Kynopolis — jackal  mummies 
are  found,  and  at  Butos  those  of  mice  and  sparrow-hawks, 
symbols  of  the  goddess  and  of  the  god  (Horos)  revered  in 
that  locality.  Considering  the  wide  spread  of  the  worship 
of  Horos,  sparrow-hawk  bodies  are,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
found  in  other  places  also.  To  the  cat,  the  animal  of 
Sechet  and  Bast,  of  Tefnut  and  Ea,  especial  sacredness  was 
ascribed.  The  story  of  Diodorus  is  well  known.  A  Roman 
soldier  at  Alexandria,  having  unfortunately  killed  a  cat, 
was  murdered  by  the  furious  populace,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  the  king  to  rescue  him.  The  sacred  animal  of 
the  Thebaid  was  the  ram ;  that  of  Eileithyia  the  vulture ; 
of  Herakleopolis  the  ichneumon ;  of  Lykopolis  or  Sioot, 
the  wolf.  Where  Set  was  worshipped,  there  the  hippopota- 
mus was  likewise  revered ;  and  in  the  various  places  where 
Sebak,  the  crocodile-headed  god,  had  temples,  as  at  Ombos 
and  at  Krokodilopolis  on  the  lake  of  Moeris,  in  the 
Fayoom,  homage  was  paid  to  the  crocodile.  Herodotus 
tells  how,  in  the  last-mentioned  place,  this  animal  was 
adorned  with  crystal  and  gold  ear-rings  and  rings  on  its 
fore  feet,  how  it  was  fed  with  meal  and  with  sacrificial 
flesh,  and  how  at  its  death,  after  being  carefully  embalmed, 
it  was  entombed  in  a  sacred  sarcophagus.  Everywhere 
else,  he  remarks,  the  crocodile  is  hunted  and  killed,  which 
must  have  been  especially  the  case  at  Edfu  and  Dendera, 
but  here  he  is  preserved.     Indeed,  from  what  Strabo  tells 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  99 

us,  we  may  believe  that  the  animals,  through  this  constant 
attention,  became  quite  tame.  He  himself  was  a  witness 
of  how  the  crocodile  was  fed  by  placing  within  his  mouth 
the  sacrificial  offerings,  which  he  appears  to  have  swallowed 
down  with  an  air  of  calm  resignation.1 

The  most  important  worship  of  this  kind  was  however  in 
all  periods  that  of  the  three  animals  before  referred  to,  the 
Apis  of  Memphis,  the  Mnevis  of  Heliopolis,  and  the  ram  of 
Mendes,  and  especially  of  the  first.  That  the  two  bulls 
were  not  rivals,  or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  that  the  two 
were  not  symbols  for  the  same  thing,  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  the  same  person  could  be  simultaneously  priest 
of  Apis,  Mnevis,  and  of  a  sacred  heifer,  the  worship  of 
which  is  several  times  mentioned  in  the  time  of  the  Old 
Kingdom. 

It  would  even  appear  that  Apis,  before  being  conducted 
to  his  temple  at  Memphis,  stayed  first  a  considerable  time, 
forty  days,  at  Heliopolis.  It  is  impossible  to  make  out 
whether  so  early  as  under  the  first  dynasties  the  four 
sacred  bulls  were  worshipped,  of  which  mention  is  made 
in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  namely,  besides  the  Hapi 
bull  and  Urmerti,  which  is  Mnevis,  two  others  of  uncer- 
tain signification,  Ternur  and  Abekur.  It  is  certain  that 
so  soon  as  under  Chufu  (Cheops)  of  the  fourth  dynasty, 
we  read  of  a  priest  dedicated  solely  to  the  service  of  Apis, 
and  besides,  under  Chafra  we  hear  of  a  bull,  Zasepf,  "  who 
appears  at  his  hour,"  and  of  whom  it  is  told  naively  enough 
that  the  favourite  of  the  king  Merisanch  was  priestess.2 

Mena  or  Mnevis,  as  representing  the  again  reviving  sun, 
and  being  thus  sacred  to  Ea-harmachis,  was  light-coloured, 
white  or  yellow.  Hapi,  on  the  contrary,  as  "  the  again 
reviving  Ptah,"  and  consequently  a  symbol  of  the  unseen 
hidden  god,  was  dark  with  white  spots,  which  had  to 
resemble  the  winged  sun's  disk,  and  the  resemblance  of 
a   beetle,   emblem   of   the   creator,   had,  it  was  said,  to 

1  See  Duncker,  Geschichte  des  2  De  Rouge,  vi.  prem.  Dynasties, 
Alterthums,  i.  53  et  seq.  p.  59  et  seq. 


ioo         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

be  under  the  tongue.  The  symbolism  is  evident  enough. 
The  god  who  by  day  reveals  himself  in  the  brilliant  sun- 
light passes  the  night  in  the  dark  abyss ;  and,  unseen,  works 
on  there  as  creator  of  himself  and  of  all  things  :  or,  to  trans- 
late from  mythological  to  theological  language,  the  Apis 
bull  is  the  living  image  of  the  god  who  brings  light  out  of 
darkness  and  life  out  of  death.  Hence  he  also  carried  a 
golden  disk  between  his  horns.  Afterwards  he  was  very 
naturally  associated  with  Osiris  and  more  particularly 
with  Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.  He  may  thus  be  more  definitely 
described  as  an  image  of  Ptah  in  his  form  of  Sekru,  and 
between  Sekru  and  Osiris  there  was  essentially  no  differ- 
ence.1 He  is  often  called  Son  of  Ptah,  and  this  is  to  be 
understood  in  a  literal  sense,  for  the  Apis  was  born  in  a 
supernatural  manner.  Ptah  in  the  shape  of  a  sacred  flame, 
a  heavenly  ray  of  light,  impregnated  the  specially  selected 
cow,  which  remained  nevertheless  a  virgin,  and  even  after 
the  birth  of  the  divine  son  brought  forth  no  second  calf. 
Here  we  have  a  grossly  sensuous  form  of  that  doctrine 
which  the  Egyptians  and  peoples  kindred  to  them  clothed 
in  various  forms,  and  which  was  destined  to  be  trans- 
formed by  the  speculations  of  the  early  Christians  into 
charming  poetry.  The  birthday  of  the  holy  son  of  the  god 
was  celebrated  at  Memphis  with  great  pomp  and  rejoicing. 
It  was  a  time  of  salvation  and  peace  on  earth  when  even 
the  beasts  of  prey  harmed  nobody.  But  the  concern  about 
the  dead  Apis  was  greater  still.  When  he,  to  use  the 
orthodox  expression,  united  himself  with  Ptah  in  the  house 
of  times  without  end,  to  remain  henceforth  and  for  ever 
in  the  place  of  eternity,  a  great  and  general  mournino- 
took  place,  and  the  care  bestowed  on  his  corpse  was  not  a 
whit  less  than  beseemed  a  son  of  the  deity.  The  service 
of  the  dead  Apis  seems  however  to  have  flourished  only  in 
later  times.     If  not  inaugurated  under  the  eighteenth  or 

1  Compare  the  name  Nefer-ha-  occurs  so  early  as  under  the  second 
sekru,  which  it  is  possible  to  trans-  dynasty.  De  Rouge,  Op.  cit.,  p. 
late,  good  bull  of  Sekru,  and  which     24. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         101 

nineteenth  dynasties,  it  then  at  least  soared  to  an  extra- 
vagant pitch,  and  continued  to  rise  until  it  reached  its 
climax  under  the  Ptolemies. 

Many  endeavours  have  been  made  to  explain  the  animal 
worship  of  the  Egyptians,  which  has  always  been  regarded 
as  quite  an  isolated  phenomenon.  Yet  the  matter  is  far 
simpler  than  has  been  supposed,  and  the  phenomenon  is 
by  no  means  unique.  All  mythologies  teem  with  animal 
symbolism,  and  examples  of  sacred  animals  revered  while 
living  are  pretty  numerous.  Cows  and  oxen  were  wor- 
shipped not  only  in  Egypt,  but  among  the  Eomans  also, 
and  are  still  in  the  present  day  worshipped  by  the  Hindoos. 
By  Celts,  Germans,  and  Slavs  the  horse  was  regarded  as 
sacred,  and  a  number  of  these  animals  were  kept  at  their 
temple,  and  they  adorned  them  exactly  as  the  Egyptians 
used  to  adorn  Sebak's  crocodile.  Erom  2  Kings  xxiii. 
1 1  we  know  of  horses  and  chariots  of  the  sun  that  were 
kept  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  from  Herodot.  i. 
1 89  we  likewise  know  of  the  four  white  Msasen  steeds 
of  the  Persians,  which  had  a  similar  significance.  The 
Germans  likewise  preserved  cats  carefully,  because  they, 
as  well  as  weasels,  were  animals  skilled  in  magic.  They 
also,  like  the  Normans,  made  offerings  to  the  wild  birds, 
in  order  to  induce  them  to  spare  the  grain  and  the  cattle. 
So  too,  in  Holland,  long  ago  the  punishment  of  death  was 
meted  out  to  any  one  who  killed  one  of  the  sacred  swans 
kept  at  the  expense  of  the  State.  Eeverence  for  the 
stork,  those  at  the  Hague  and  others,  springs  from  the 
same  superstition.  The  geese  of  the  Capitol,  too,  are  fam- 
ous all  over  the  world.  They  were  kept  there  as  symbols 
of  domesticity  and  f  ruitf  ulness  in  honour  of  Juno,  a  benefit 
which  they  requited  by  saving  the  city. 

The  worship  of  sacred  animals  has,  however,  in  no  case 
attained,  in  the  religion  of  any  civilised  people  known  to 
us,  a  development  so  extensive  as  that  we  find  among  the 
Egyptians.  In  as  far  as  we  can  judge  of  it — for  as  yet  the 
monuments  of  the  earlier  centuries  are  few  in  number — 


102         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

this  form  of  worship  became  more  prevalent  rather  than 
less  so  as  time  went  on.     Yet  we  must  not  infer  that 
animal  worship  in  Egypt  was    an   innovation,   and  still 
less  are  we  to  regard  it  as  progress  onwards.     The  explana- 
tion of  it  lies  in  the  tendency,  usually  denominated  fetish- 
istic,  but  more  properly  animistic,  which  led  men  to  see 
in  animals,  distinguished  for  beauty  or  strength,  or  by  the 
services  they  perform,  or  by  the  injury  they  do,  or  by 
their  form,  their  colour,  or  by  any  other  specialty,  the 
incarnation  of  powerful  spirits,  whom  it  is  good  policy  to 
worship  in  order  that  their  anger  may  be  averted  or  their 
favour  gained.     These  ideas  must  likewise  have  prevailed 
among  the  Egyptians  in  the  most  remote  antiquity,  and 
this   assertion   will   not  appear  so  unaccountable  if   we 
accept  what  seems  to  be  now  established  by  significant 
traits  connected  with  the  ethnology  and  philology  of  the 
country;  namely,  that  the  colonists  or  conquerors   who 
came  from  Asia,  and  who  formed  an  aristocratic  ruling 
class  in  Egypt,  found  in  that  country  an  African  people 
whom  they  subdued,  and  with  whom  they  became  inter- 
mixed.    In  no  other  way  could  they  so  naturally  have 
adopted  ideas  of  the  kind  we  refer  to,  for  nowhere  else 
does  the  worship  of   animals  prevail  so  extensively  as 
among  African  peoples.1     A  popular  belief,  so  general  and 
so  deeply  rooted,  was  destined,  in  one  form  or  another,  to 
take  its  place  in  the  religion  of  the  state,  and  that  is  what 
actually  happened.     It  is  in  animism,  therefore,  that  the 
origin  of  the  worship  of  animals  among  the  Egyptians  is 
to  be  sought.     It  soon,  however,  became  necessary  to  try 
to  establish  a  harmony  between  it  and  the  more  elevated 
ideas  that  in  process  of  time  were  attached  to  the  chief 
gods.     Several  sacred  animals  were  identified  with  these 
gods  themselves,  others  became  the  living  images  of  the 

1  Nor  is  this  the  only  mark  of  a  dignities,  the  general  practice  of  cir- 

close  affinity  with  the  strictly  Afri-  cumcision,  the  mode  of  buryin^  the 

can  religions.    Under  the  same  head  dead,  the  use  of  a  panther  skin°as  a 

comes  likewise  the  deification  of  the  royal  and  priestly  vestment   &c. 
kings,  the  unity  of  kingly  and  priestly 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  103 

gods.  Mysticism  and  symbolism  were  the  bridge  by 
means  of  which  the  passage  was  effected  from  a  lower  to 
a  higher  and  purer  religion.  The  worship  of  animals 
having  once  become  naturalised  in  the  official  religion, 
and  having,  by  the  help  of  all  sorts  of  mystic  explana- 
tions, taken  on  a  varnish  of  apparent  profundity,  the  ten- 
dency to  multiply  symbols  and  allegories,  and  also  the 
nature  of  the  hieroglyphic  mode  of  writing,  led  not  only 
to  the  multiplication  of  the  number  of  sacred  animals, 
but  also  to  an  increase  of  zeal  in  cultivating  this  wor- 
ship. Animals  that  had  not  hitherto  been  worshipped 
were  elevated  to  the  rank  of  sacred  animals,  because  their 
names  resembled  those  of  the  gods.1 

No  less  characteristic  of  the  Egyptian  religion  than  the 
worship  of  the  sacred  animals  is  the  deification  of  the 
kings.  This,  too,  dates  from  the  time  of  the  Old  King- 
dom. Even  at  that  early  time  their  public  worship  was 
established.  Chufu  and  Chafra,  the  two  great  kings  of 
the  fourth  dynasty,  appear  to  have  inaugurated  this 
custom  officially;  for  although  it  is  true  that  some  of 
their  predecessors,  like  Mena,  Teta,  and  Snefru,  were 
worshipped  as  gods,  the  last  named  at  the  mines  of  Sinai, 
it  is  uncertain  whether  the  worship  of  them  dates  from 
their  own  times.  Chufu  (Cheops)  was  undoubtedly  wor- 
shipped as  a  god  under  one  of  his  immediate  successors, 
and  had  a  priest  set  apart  for  him,  and  the  sons  of  Chafra 
exercised  the  office  of  the  priesthood  of  their  father. 
The  same  is  told  us  of  Eatutef,  Menkaura  (Mycerinus), 
Tatkara  or  Assa,  Useskaf,  Kaka  (of  the  fifth  dynasty,  to 
be  distinguished  from  Kakau  of  the  second),  after  whom 
a  domain  was  named  "  Invocation  of  the  spirits  of  Kaka  " 
(Kaka-uas-bin) ;  and,  in  short,  the  same  may  be  said  of 
all  the  princes  who  were  of  the  least  consequence.     Not 

1  I  have  given  proofs  of  this  asser-  to  be  obliged  to  go  into  these  points 

tion  in  an  article   in   the   Theolog.  at  greater  length.     Comp.  Pietsch- 

Tijdsch.,  12th  year,  pp.  261  et  scq.,  mann,  Zeitsch.  f ür  Ethnologie,  1878, 

to  which  I  must  refer  here  so  as  not  p.  153  et  seq. 


io4         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

only  were  special  sepulchral  temples  built  beside  their 
pyramids,  but,  while  they  still  lived,  sanctuaries  were 
erected  of  which  they  themselves  were  the  deities.  This 
deification  of  men  prevailed  so  extensively  as  to  cast  the 
worship  of  the  gods  into  the  shade,  and  so  as  to  thrust 
some  of  them  altogether  into  the  background.  Thus  Una, 
a  high  state  official  under  three  kings  of  the  fifth  dynasty, 
declares  that  in  the  reign  of  Merenra,  in  connection  with 
four  work  places,  or  levies  arranged  for  vast  works,  he  had 
built  as  many  holy  places,  in  order  that  the  spirits  of  this 
king,  the  ever-living  Merenra,  might  be  invoked  "  more 
than  all  the  gods."  l  This  continued  all  through  the  cen- 
turies. The  sanctuaries  of  the  kings  were  upheld  with  a 
steadfastness  exactly  like  that  with  which  the  service  of 
the  gods  was  maintained,  and  their  priests  succeeded  each 
other  in  regular  order.  Under  the  twentieth  dynasty,  for 
example,  we  find,  still  firmly  established,  priests  of  Cheops, 
Cephren,  and  Eathoïses  (Katutef),  of  the  fourth,  and  under 
the  Ptolemies,  a  priest  of  Snefru  of  the  third  dynasty. 

This  worship  of  the  kings  was  not  instituted  by  the 
state ;  it  was  not  an  official  worship  contrived  by  despotic 
power  in  order  to  lend  a  greater  sanctity  to  the  office  of 
king,  but  with  the  Egyptians  it  was  an  article  of  faith, 
as  is  visible  in  everything.  The  Egyptian  religion  was 
the  first  civilised  expression  of  a  faith  in  the  unlimited 
sovereignty  of  the  deity.  The  king — it  is  an  application 
of  the  very  same  principle  from  which  the  worship  of 
animals  proceeded — the  king  was  much  more  emphati- 
cally than  the  sacred  animal  the  son  of  God,  of  the  living 
God,  the  incarnation  of  the  divine  being  on  earth.  Thus, 
some  centuries  later,  a  servant  of  Amenemha  I.  and  User- 
tasen  I.,  by  name  Saneha,  who  had  fallen  into  disgrace 
with  them,  speaks  as  follows  in  his  autobiography,2  re- 
ferring to  the  king :  "  Let  god  be  gracious  to  him  whom 
he  has  removed,  whom  he  has  banished  to  another  land ; 

1  See  De  Rouge,  op.  cit.,  p.  143. 

2  Goodwin,  The  Story  of  Saneha  :  Lond.  and  Edin.,  1S66. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         105 

let  him  be  mild  as  Ea."  Having  obtained  permission 
to  return,  he  is  almost  mad  with  joy.  He  falls  on 
his  face  as  if  in  adoration  before  the  majesty  of  the 
king.  He  cannot  believe  it  is  true.  "The  great  god, 
the  equal  of  the  sun-god,  mocks  me  ! "  he  exclaims ; 
"thy  majesty  is  as  Horos,  the  power  of  thy  arm  ex- 
tends over  all  lands."  "I  live,"  he  testifies  afterwards, 
"by  the  breath  which  thou  givest ;  I  love  Ea  Horos 
fondly,  the  image  of  thy  noble  shape."  Admitted  to 
the  royal  presence,  he  is  elated  beyond  measure.  Again 
he  falls  upon  his  face.  "  The  god,"  so  he  relates,  "  spoke 
amicably  to  me.  I  was  like  one  brought  out  of  the 
darkness  into  the  light.  My  tongue  was  dumb,  my 
limbs  refused  their  office,  my  heart  was  no  longer  in  my 
body,  so  that  I  knew  not  whether  I  lived  or  if  I  was  dead." 
Deification  of  humanity  can  go  no  further. 

The  worship  of  the  kings  was  hence  only  a  consequence 
of  the  way  in  which  they  were  looked  upon  by  the  people, 
whose  view,  again,  may  easily  be  explained  from  the 
character  of  the  Egyptian  religion.  As  every  good  man 
at  his  death  became  Osiris,  as  every  one  in  danger  or  need 
could  by  the  use  of  magic  sentences  assume  the  form  of  a 
deity,  it  is  quite  comprehensible  how  the  king,  not  only 
after  death,  but  already  during  his  life,  was  placed  on  a 
level  with  the  deity.  The  kings,  in  fact,  sat  on  the  throne 
of  Horos,  of  Turn,  nay,  they  were  themselves  the  living 
Horos,  sons  of  Ea  the  creator,  revelations  of  and  substi- 
tutes for  the  gods  on  earth.  Just  as  their  servants  took 
their  names  with  some  addition  or  modification,  so  they 
took  those  of  the  gods  with  or  without  addition.  Between 
a  conception  such  as  this  and  distinct  worship  there  is 
but  one  step. 

In  this  apotheosis  of  the  kings,  the  inclination  of  the 
Egyptian  people  to  materialise  everything  is  once  more 
strongly  manifested.  What  took  place  with  the  worship 
of  animals  happened  in  this  case  also.  The  mythology 
presented  the  gods  symbolically  under  the  form  of  animals, 


io6         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

and  this  was  represented  to  the  senses  in  the  worship  of 
animals.  The  theology  or  doctrine  of  the  state,  if  it  be 
permissible  to  speak  of  snch  a  thing  as  existing  among 
the  Egyptians,  made  the  kings  into  substitutes  of  the 
deity,  and  thus  invested  them  with  a  divine  character. 
This  was  represented  to  the  senses  in  the  worship  of  their 
persons.  The  doctrine  was  called  in  question  by  nobody, 
nor  did  any  one  take  offence  at  its  practical  application. 
The  people  believed  in  it  quite  as  firmly  as  the  kings, 
who  did  not  feel  themselves  overwhelmed  by  the  homage 
paid  to  them,  but  received,  on  the  contrary,  with  perfect 
complacency,  the  incense  which  was  burned  before  them 
by  their  worshippers. 

Another  reason  for  the  worship  of  kings  was  the  idea 
which  the  Egyptians  had  of  the  state.  The  state  was  for 
them  still  a  pure  theocracy,  and  corresponded  in  that  res- 
pect closely  to  that  of  China.  As  in  China,  the  emperor 
alone,  as  son  of  heaven,  offers  sacrifice  to  the  supreme  deity, 
so  in  Egypt  the  temples  were  properly  nothing  but  the 
houses  of  prayer  for  the  kings,  into  which  it  was  lawful 
for  none  but  them  and  the  consecrated  priests  to  enter. 
The  idea  of  theocracy  that  prevails  among  all  the  Meso- 
potamian  peoples,  including  the  Asiatics,  was  deeply 
rooted  among  the  Egyptians.  Eeligion  and  state  were 
with  them  not  united,  they  were  actually  one.  There  is 
no  distinction  between  the  two.  God  rules,  the  king  is 
his  son,  that  is  to  say,  is  God  himself,  his  incarnation. 
His  rule  is  therefore  wholly  absolute.  This  is  the  period 
when  the  true  unadulterated  droit  divin  held  sway,  as  yet 
undiluted  by  any  rationalistic  speculation.  In  Egypt  no 
restraints,  not  even  the  slightest,  existed  to  fetter  abso- 
lutism. There  was  nothing,  for  instance,  like  the  pro- 
phetic schools  of  Israel  and  seers  controlling  God's 
anointed  by  the  word  of  God.  It  seems  to  have  been 
impossible  in  the  case  of  Israel  to  uphold  in  its  full 
strength  the  fiction  that  the  king  is  as  the  deity.  By  the 
idea  of  the  covenant  the  Israelite  theocracy  became,  so  to 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  107 

speak,  a  constitutional  government,  and  it  preserved 
this  character  quite  independently  of  the  consideration 
whether  god's  vicegerent  on  earth  were  a  king  or  a  high 
priest,  until  at  last  it  received  from  Jesus  its  spiritual 
completion,  and  an  end  was  put  to  all  fiction.  But  pure, 
absolutely  sovereign,  divine  rule  is  to  be  found  in  Egypt 
in  a  greater  degree  than  in  Assur  and  Babel,  or  even 
China  itself. 

The  complete  identity  of  religion  and  state  among  the 
Egyptians  comes  out  also  in  what  we  know  of  their 
priesthood.  A  few  words  may  here  be  appropriately  said 
on  this  subject.  The  various  priestly  orders  were  as 
innumerable  as  the  temples  and  cults,  and  even  were  it 
possible  to  do  so,  it  is  not  part  of  my  plan  to  enumerate 
the  designations  of  the  priests  of  each  particular  deity. 
The  same  person,  moreover,  could  act  as  priest  to  several, 
to  as  many  as  six  or  seven  gods.  The  priestly  names  that 
occur  oftenest  are  ab,  the  pure,  ak,  one  who  enters,  i.e., 
into  the  temple ;  lion,  the  servant  or  prophet,  a  title 
bestowed  on  both  men  and  women.  Priestesses  were 
also  called  chen,  helper,  and  suau,  consecrated  to  the  deity. 
Mention  is  also  made  of  male  and  female  choristers  (hes).1 
The  sabu-n-per-aa,  magicians  of  the  great  house  (pharao), 
appear  to  have  been  the  king's  special  temple  priests,  but 
it  is  only  in  later  times  that  they  are  heard  of.  The  office 
of  sem,  the  leader,  the  head  one,  is  extremely  ancient,  and 
was  filled  by  the  priesthood  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  A 
panther's  skin  was  the  vesture  of  this  office,  and  he  who 
filled  it  wore,  like  the  god  himself,  his  hair  arranged  after 
the  fashion  of  a  youth  with  a  lock  or  plait  depending  on 
one  side  of  the  head.  This  was  one  of  the  most  honour- 
able priestly  dignities,  and  was  oftenest  held  by  princely 
personages,  sometimes  by  the  king  himself.  At  a  later 
period   the   high  priests    of  Ptah    found   their   rivals   in 

1  Interesting  information  on  the     Rouge,  in  the  Rev.  Archaeol.,  1S65, 
subject  of  the  priestly  offices  will  be     i.  373  et  seq. 
found   in  an  article  by  Jacques  de 


ioS         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

"those  who  opened  the  gates  of  heaven  in  Apet,"  the 
high-priests  of  Thebes.1  The  chief  priests  of  this  order, 
but  not  all  of  them,  were  appointed  by  the  king.  Fre- 
quently the  son  succeeded  the  father,  and  the  daughter  the 
mother  in  the  priestly  office,  though  no  fixed  rule  is 
observable,  and  there  is,  at  least,  in  the  Old  and  Middle 
Kingdom,  no  trace  of  hereditary  succession  or  of  caste. 
Oftenest  it  is  the  sons  of  kings,  and  seemingly  heirs-ap- 
parent by  preference,  who  fill  the  most  important  priestly 
offices  ;  for  instance,  a  son  of  Snefru  was  the  Sem  of  Ptah, 
a  post  filled  many  centuries  later  by  Chamus  the  son  of 
Eamses  II.  When  men  of  ordinary  descent  were  exalted 
to  this  lofty  position,  it  was,  in  most  cases,  owing  to  their 
being  married  to  princesses.  The  renowned  Ti,  who  lived 
under  the  fourth  dynasty,  and  whose  tomb  yields  so  rich 
a  harvest  to  the  antiquary,  appears  to  have  risen  to  his 
high  spiritual  dignities  solely  because  his  wife  Nefer- 
hotep-s,  who  filled  at  the  same  time  the  offices  of  priestess 
of  Hathor  and  of  Neith,  was  a  princess  of  the  blood-royal. 
Chua,  another  parvenu  of  the  time  of  the  fifth  dynasty,  a 
courtier  of  Nefer-ka-ra,  Ea-meri,  and  Mer-en-ra,  gained 
the  office  of  "  head  of  all  the  dignities  of  religious  affairs," 
seemingly  a  kind  of  high-priest's  substituteship,  solely 
because  he  was  the  king's  father-in-law,  and  because  his 
wife  belonged  to  the  royal  family.2  These  personages, 
moreover,  were  not  exclusively  priests,  but  filled  secular 
and  even  military  offices  as  well  as  their  spiritual  ones. 
Ti,  whom  we  have  just  referred  to,  was  not  only  "  com- 
mander of  the  holy  prophets,"  hcb,  or  soothsayer,  "head  of 
the  secret  of  divine  words,"  and  "of  the  secret  of  the 
house  of  worship,"  "  head  of  the  offerings,"  and  "  of  all 
purifications,"  and  besides  all  this,  special  priest  of  Ea, 
and  of  one  of  the  forms  of  Horos  :  but,  while  fulfilling  the 
religious  duties  attached  to  these  dignities,  he  still  found 
time  to  fulfil  the  more  secular  ones  of  "  one  of  the  con- 

i  Jacques    de  Rouge,    Rev.    Ar-         2  E.  de  Rouge'.  VI.  Dynasties,  pp. 
chaeol.,  1S65,  ii.  328  et  seq.  95,  97,  132. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         109 

fidants  of  the  friendship  of  the  king,"  "  head  of  the  gates 
of  the  palace,"  "private  secretary  of  his  master  in  all  his 
residencies,"  "head  of  all  the  public  works  of  the  king," 
grand  architect  therefore  ;  besides  this  he  was  "  head  of 
the  royal  scriptures,"  «  secretary  for  all  the  decrees  of  the 
king,"  governor  of  various  places,  and,  perhaps,  over  and 
above  all  this,  master  of  the  Eoyal  Hunt.  Chua  combined 
with  his  high  ecclesiastical  office  that  of  commandant  of 
various  towns  and  of  commander  of  the  grandees  of  the 
north  and  of  the  south  of  the  kingdom. 

When  war  seemed  imminent  the  king  himself  commis- 
sioned all  his  servants,  the  priests  as  well  as  the  others,  to 
undertake  the  drilling  of  the  soldiers,  who  were  levied 
from  all  parts  of  the  country.1  In  a  word,  the  priestly 
offices  were  state  functions,  the  highest,  it  may  be,  and  the 
most  honourable,  but  which  did  not  differ  at  all  in  kind 
from  that  of  commander  of  the  troops,  governor  of  a  dis- 
trict, architect,  and  chamberlain.  In  fact,  both  kinds  of 
office  were,  for  the  most  part,  filled  by  the  same  persons. 
This  was  the  case  in  every  period  of  Egyptian  history. 
An  inscription,  discovered  in  one  of  the  islands  at  the 
cataracts  in  Upper  Egypt,  mentions  a  certain  Amenhotep 
seemingly  of  the  time  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  who  was 
overseer  of  the  bulls  of  Amun,  royal  scribe,  and  at  the  same 
time  bowman  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  his  majesty's 
stall-master,  prince  of  Kush  (Ethiopia),  governor  of  the 
southern  districts,  and,  to  crown  all,  warrior  and  singer  to 
the  king.2  If  there  existed  a  learned  class  (cher-chcht), 
entrusted  with  the  preservation  of  the  holy  scriptures  and 
magical  books,3  it  was  certainly  not  distinctly  marked  off. 
It  could  be  spontaneously  chosen,  and,  of  course,  only  men 
of  education  could  think  of  entering  it ;  but  in  order  to  be 


128 
a 


1  E.  de  Rouge,  VI.  Dynasties,  p.     offices  in  various  temples,  and  is  di- 
g#    '  rector  of  the  treasury,  priest   of  Ra 


Brugsch,  Reiseberichte,  p.  274.  and  Horos.     Brugsch,  Jlecueil^des 

he  tune  of  Nektanebos,  the  last  Moi 

,ÖJptian  king,  a  district  governor  of  3 

Upper  Egypt  still  discharged  sacred  175. 


In  the  time 'of  Nektanebos,  the  last     Monuments,  i.  10.     Comp.  PI.  VI. 
Egyptian  king,  a  district  governor  of         3  Chabas,  Pap.   Mag.,  Harris,   p. 


no         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

qualified,  it  was  not  necessary  that  a  man  should  "belong 
to  a  particular  tribe  or  to  an  exclusive  caste.  Various 
writings  are  in  existence,  drawn  up  by  contented  scribes, 
who,  seeking  to  persuade  others  to  follow  their  own  ex- 
ample, dissuade  them  from  the  choice  of  a  military  career. 
Of  these,  an  example  is  the  famous  Papyrus  Anastasi  I., 
which  I  do  not,  like  the  learned  editor,  consider  a  ^rave 
reality,  but  rather  look  upon  it,  with  De  Eougé  and 
Brugsch,  as  a  work  of  fiction.  The  only  things  binding 
upon  those  who  had  accepted  the  priestly  dignity,  and 
consequently  on  the  kings,  above  all,  were  ;  first,  the 
observance  of  special  cleanliness,  one  means  of  attaining 
which  was  shaving  the  head  bare,  and  a  symbol  of  which 
was  the  white  linen  clothing,  the  only  thing  they  were 
permitted  to  wear,  besides  the  panther's  skin,  while  dis- 
charging their  functions  ;  secondly,  they  were  obliged  to 
abstain  from  the  use  of  certain  kinds  of  food,  especially 
from  fish  and  beans. 

Egyptian  history,  such  as  is  confirmed  by  contemporary 
monuments,  begins  properly  with  Snefru  and  his  two  suc- 
cessors, Chufu  and  Chafra ;  but  even  at  that  period  it  is 
visibly  inconsistent  with  the  traditions  that  have  come  to 
us  through  the  Greeks  and  even  with  those  of  Manetho. 
No  princes  ever  displayed  so  much  religious  zeal  as  these 
three,  and  especially  the  latter  two.  Snefru  was  careful 
to  see  that  the  mining  at  Sinai  for  turquoise  and  copper 
was  carried  on  under  the  guardianship  of  religion.  Chufu 
and  Chafra  erected  many  monuments,  and  among  them 
various  temples.  Yet  Herodotus  relates  that  they  were 
extremely  irreligious,  that  they  shut  up  temples  which 
were  not  again  thrown  open  till  the  time  of  Mycerinus 
(M en-kau-ra),  the  king  who  came  next  or  next  again  after 
them.  According  to  him  also,  their  memory  was  in  all 
times  execrated  by  the  Egyptians.  With  the  positive  proofs 
of  their  works  in  honour  of  the  gods  before  us,  we  should 
have  been  inclined  simply  to  reject  the  tale  of  the  histo- 
rian, had  it  not  been  confirmed  by  a  remarkable  fact.    The 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         in 

magnificent  statues  of  Chafra,  made  by  his  own  order,  and 
which  are  excelled  in  beauty  and  artistic  merit  by  Greek 
workmanship  alone,  have  been  found  lying  shattered  in  a 
well,  into  which  they  must  have  been  violently  thrown, 
and  where,  as  is  indicated  by  sure  signs,  they  have  lain 
since  a  very  early  time.     It  would  hence  appear  that  at 
his  death  there  must   have  occurred    some  outburst  of 
popular  fury  or  of  party  hatred  against  him,  which,  how- 
ever, must  have  been  speedily  appeased,  for  the  cartouches 
that  bear  the  names  of  both  kings  are  not,  as  is  usual  in 
such  cases,  chiselled  out,  and  the  religious  worship  of  their 
persons  by  a  special  priesthood  continued  without  inter- 
ruption.    What  could  have  been  the  cause  of  this  revolt  ? 
The  Egyptians  could  hardly  have  called  kings  godless  who 
devoted  so  much  work  and  so  many  treasures  to  the  gods. 
Nor  could  they  have  been  looked  upon  as  sacrilegious  who 
restored  the  fallen  temples  in  fresh  splendour,  and  placed 
the  sods  ag;ain  on  their  forsaken  seats.     To  account  for  it 
by  the  pressure  of  the  severe  forced  labour  that  must  have 
been  exacted  for  the  erection  of  buildings  so  colossal  ap- 
pears to  me  far  too  modern  an  explanation,  and  one  little 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  of  the  people. 
The  ancient  Egyptians  were  no  democrats,  and  nothing 
seemed  to  them  more  natural  than  that  the  possessions 
and  persons  of  his  subjects  should  be  at  the  disposal  of  the 
king  their  master.     Men-kau-ra,  too,  and  his  successors, 
though  their  pyramids  are  not  so  large  as  those  of  Chufu 
and  Chafra,  walked  in  the  footsteps  of  these,  their  pre- 
decessors, without  hindrance.     Dr.  Max  Büdinger  l  has,  I 
think,  succeeded  in  solving  one  part  of  this  difficult  pro- 
blem, by  exposing  the  error  into  which  Herodotus  has 
fallen  through  confounding  the  pious  kings,  founders  of 
the  pyramids,  with  the  Hyksos  kings,  who  desecrated  and 
pillaged  the  temples,  and  by  establishing  the  certainty 
that  the  herdsman,  Philetes  or  Suites,  mentioned  in  the 
same  passage,  can  be  no  other  than  the  shepherd  king 

1  Zur  Egyptischen  Forschung  Herodots.,  Vienna,  1S73. 


ii2         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Salatis.  This  does  not,  however,  explain  the  shattered 
statues,  but  only  that  since  the  religious  worship  of  the 
two  kings  suffered  no  interruption  during  several  centuries, 
this  act  of  vandalism  must  certainly  be  attributed  to 
hostile  kings,  perhaps  to  the  Hyksos  themselves. 

The  gods  whose  worship  Snefru  had  transported  to  Sinai, 
were  for  the  most  part  Upper  Egyptian,  Hathor,  Thot,  and 
one  particular  Horos,  though  in  this  last  a  local  Horos 
must  be  recognised,  a  stellar  deity  who  was  already  wor- 
shipped in  that  portion  of  Arabia.  Divine  homage  was 
likewise  paid  there  to  Snefru  himself.  But  Chufu  went 
to  a  greater  length.  All  the  buildings  founded  by  him,  and 
among  them  the  awe-inspiring  pyramid  at  Gizeh,  exceed- 
ing all  the  others  in  size,  were,  so  far  as  we  know,  intended 
exclusively  to  glorify  his  own  person,  and  the  Osirian  and 
Heliopolitan  gods  who  were  so  closely  akin  to  each  other. 
The  great  sphinx  erected  by  him  is  the  image  of  Har- 
machis  the  visible  sun-god,  to  whom  likewise  is  dedicated 
the  little  temple  between  the  fore  feet  of  the  monster. 
In  the  neighbourhood  he  founded  or  restored  sanctuaries 
of  Osiris  and  Isis  which  were  still  standing  in  the  time 
of  Psammeticus.  If  these  were  already  in  existence,  and 
were  only  restored  by  him,  as  we  are  led  to  suppose  from 
the  contents  of  the  inscription  discovered  there,1  this 
shows  that  the  temples  of  these  gods  had  fallen  to  decay, 
and  that  he  caused  a  revival  of  their  worship.  He  is  said 
to  have  restored  the  magnificent  temple  at  Dendera, 
which  in  its  present  form  was  built  in  the  time  of  the 
Ptolemies.2     This  temple  was  known  to  have  been  dedi- 

1  The  inscription,  as  translated  by  the   foundation,   the  great  of  Den- 

E.  de  Rouge,  runs  thus  : — "  Invenit  dera,  a  monumental  restoration  car- 

templum  Isidis  ;  dedit  sacrum  pree-  ried  out  by  the  King  of  Upper  and 

dium  de  novo  ;  reposuit  deos  in  sede  Lower   Egypt,  lord   of   both   lands 

ejus."      De  Rouge,  VI.  Dynasties,  (Ra-men-cheper).    son   of   the   sun, 

pp.   46,  47.  _    A  restoration  is  here  lord  of  diadems  (Thut-mes),  after  it 

evidently  hinted  at.  was  discovered  in  ancient  writings 

^  2  The  inscription  first  brought  to  of  the  time  of  King  (Chufu)."     The 

light  by  Duemichen  is  in  his  trans-  parenthesis  indicate  the  royal  shields 

lation  as  follows  :— "  The  laying  of  or  cartouches.— Duem.  Bauurkunde 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  113 

cated  to  Hathor,  who  was  originally  a  goddess  of  the  south. 
So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  an  account  of  the  founding  of 
only  one  temple  by  Chafra,  but  in  self-glorification  he  far 
excelled  his  predecessor.  Although  it  is  not  unlikely,  it 
cannot  be  shown  with  certainty  that  the  pyramid  betwixt 
that  of  Chufu  and  that  of  Menkaura,  the  second  largest, 
is  his.  There  is,  however,  no  question  that  in  the  titles 
which  he  assumed,  the  apotheosis  is  far  more  strongly 
expressed  than  in  the  case  of  preceding  kings.  He  calls 
himself   "  Horos,   lord   of   the   heart,"   or   "  commanding 

o 

heart,"  "the  good  Horos,  the  great  god,"  and  he  is  the 
first  who  designates  himself  "  son  of  the  sun/'  "  son  of 
the  creator  (Se-Ea)."  His  wife,  or  favourite  Merisanch, 
was  curiously  enough  priestess  of  Horos  and  Thot,  and 
of  a  certain  bull,  Zasapf,  which  seems  to  have  been  differ- 
ent from  the  Apis,  although  in  the  time  of  Chufu  the  wor- 
ship of  Apis  was  certainly  carried  on.  One  of  his  sons  was 
appointed  by  him  high  priest  of  Thot  at  Hermopolis  and 
priest  of  the  king's  own  temple.  "We  find  in  the  reign  of 
this  king  next  to  no  trace  of  the  worship  of  Ptah,  the  god 
to  whom  homage  was  paid  at  Memphis  in  order  to  con- 
ciliate the  northern  portion  of  the  kingdom. 

The  worship  of  Ptah  seems  to  have  been  restored  by 
Eatutef  (Eathoïses),  and  Menkaura  (Mycerinus)  was  a 
zealous  worshipper  of  this  god,  though  at  the  same  time 
he  did  not  neglect  the  worship  of  Osiris.  His  successors 
followed  in  his  steps,  and  the  worship  of  Ptah  seems  even 


v.  Dend.,  p.  15.  Another  inscrip-  son  of  the  sun  (Pepi),  &c." — Duem., 
tion  referring  to  the  restoration  of  op.  cit.,  p.  19.  Since  the  worship- 
the  same  temple  by  King  Pepi  of  pers  of  Horos  are  supposed  to  be 
the  sixth  dynasty,  seems  to  place  anterior  to  Menes  (Duemichen  trans- 
the  foundation  at  a  time  still  further  lates  it,  "successors  of  Horos,"  but 
back.  It  runs  thus:  — "  The  account  with  a  point  of  interrogation),  De 
of  the  foundation  of  the  great  Den-  Rouge  conjectures  that  already  in 
derah  has  been 'found  in  a  writing  prehistoric  times  the  temple  was  in 
inscribed  on  the  skin  of  the  ....  existence.  With  Wiedemann  I 
beast  at  the  time  of  the  worshippers  doubt  whether  the  temple  really 
of  Horos;  it  was  found  in  the  in-  existed  before  Thutmes  -  Ra- men- 
side  of  a  brick  wall  of  the  southern  cheper. 


house  in  the  time  of  King  (Ra-meri), 


II 


ii4         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

at  last  to  have  gradually  cast  into  the  shade  that  of  Osiris, 
until  once  again  in  the  great  Merira  Pepi  of  the  sixth 
dynasty  it  found  a  valorous  champion. 

While  we  are  speaking  of  the  fourth  dynasty  whose 
most  famous  king,  though  called  a  desecrator  of  temples 
by  posterity,  nevertheless  employed  himself  in  zealously 
building  and  restoring  them,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  say  a 
few  words  about  the  Egyptian  temples  in  general.  The 
plan  of  this  work  does  not  allow  of  my  giving  a  detailed 
or  even  a  superficial  sketch  of  them,  I  shall  therefore 
merely  notice  a  few  points  in  regard  to  their  arrangement. 
In  details  they  often  differed  greatly  from  each  other,  but 
in  a  general  way  they  may  be  described  as  being  every- 
where alike.  That  in  the  course  of  centuries  no  essential 
alteration  was  made  on  their  plan  is  proved  by  the  inscrip- 
tion in  the  temple  of  Denderah  just  referred  to.  From  it 
we  see  that  when  restoring  a  sanctuary  such  as  this,  the 
Egyptians  consulted  carefully  the  old  records  and  plans, 
in  order  of  course  that  they  might  deviate  from  them  as 
little  as  possible.  The  larger  temple-buildings  were  usu- 
ally placed  within  a  walled-in  space  which  enclosed  the 
propylsea  formed  of  sphinxes  couchant,  the  sacred  trees, 
and  the  fish-ponds.  It  was  on  these  ponds  that  the  mys- 
teries of  the  jourDeys  and  conflicts  of  the  gods  on  the 
heavenly  ocean  were  acted,  and  they  no  doubt  also  served 
for  the  manifold  lustrations.  After  entering  the  precincts 
and  passing  through  between  the  rows  of  sphinxes  a 
second  portal  was  reached,  flanked  by  gigantic  pylons  or 
side  towers,  upon  which,  in  most  cases,  might  be  found  sculp 
tured  and  painted  great  feats  of  war  or  religious  represen- 
tations. Obelisks,  gilt  needles  of  stone,  the  symbolism  of 
which  belongs  to  solar  worship,  were  very  commonly  found 
erected  on  opposite  sides  of  this  entrance,  or  further  within 
the  building,  and  statues  of  the  kings  were  similarly 
placed. 

On   festal  occasions,  gay  streamers  floated  from  high 
masts  that  overtopped  even  the  pillars.     A  lofty  portal 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         115 

led  next  into  a  wide  fore-court,  open  to  the  sky,  but 
surrounded  by  a  pillared  corridor  on  three  or  four  sides. 
After  passing  through  one  or  more  of  these  fore-courts  a 
lesser  enclosure  was  reached,  the  roof  of  which,  higher  in 
the  middle  than  at  the  sides,  was  supported  by  pillars. 
This  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of  fore-court  for  the  priests, 
for  immediately  adjoining  it  was  the  holy  of  holies,  which 
on  three  sides  was  surrounded  by  lesser  halls  and  apart- 
ments, each  one  being  set  apart  for  some  particular  rite. 
Offerings  of  incense  were  presented  on  the  left,  substantial 
offerings  on  the  right.  The  holy  of  holies  was  low,  small, 
and  mysterious.  There  stood  the  sacred  ark,  the  emblem 
of  the  hidden  deity.  This  was  a  sort  of  chest  half  covered 
over  by  a  veil  or  curtain,  and,  like  the  sacred  boat  upon 
which  it  was  placed,  it  was  adorned  with  the  symbols  of 
life,  endurance,  light,  and  fertilising  power.  It  ought  ap- 
parently to  be  distinguished  from  the  mystical  chest,  yet 
in  many  respects  its  signification  is  the  same,  and  on  days 
of  festival  it  was  carried  round  in  procession  outside  the 
temple  by  a  number  of  the  priests.  Often,  winged  figures 
are  found  upon  it,  recalling  the  cherubim  of  the  Israelitish 
temple.  Within  the  ark  was  the  image  of  the  deity,  which 
no  one  had  ever  beheld,  though  other  images  of  the  gods 
were  conspicuous  in  the  temples,  and  were  also  carried  round 
in  processions.  Processional  voyages  were  often  made  on 
the  river  with  the  ark ;  thus,  for  instance,  on  the  first  of 
the  month  Pachons  a  great  festival  took  place  at  Edfu, 
the  town  sacred  to  Horos  in  his  form  of  winged  sun's 
disk.  On  this  occasion  Hathor  of  Denderah  came  thence 
to  Edfu  in  her  sacred  bark  Neb-meri-t,  or  Peset-to-ti  (the 
mistress  of  love,  and  the  illumination  of  the  world),  and 
Horos  went  forth  on  his  bark  to  meet  her.  Hathor  stayed 
some  days  in  the  city  of  Horos,  during  which  great  feasts 
were  celebrated  in  honour  of  both  gods.1 

Each  Egyptian  would  seem  to  have  had  his  own  par- 
ticular chapel  where  he  performed  his  religious  duties. 

1  See  Jacques  de  Rouge,  Rev.  Archeeol.,  1865,  ii.  208  et  seq. 


u6         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

The  temples  themselves  could  be  entered  only  by  the 
kings  and  priests,  but  the  fore-courts  were  probably  open 
to  the  people.  On  all  sides  the  walls  were  eloquent, 
covered  as  they  were  with  images  and  hieroglyphs.  Every- 
thing was  arranged  with  the  greatest  splendour  and  ex- 
pense, but  everywhere  there  was  a  feeling  of  mystery,  of 
impressiveness,  of  seriousness.  The  temples  of  Egypt  were 
grand  and  awe-inspiring,  rather  than  pleasant  and  alluring 
like  those  of  Greece.  They  were  built  on  a  colossal  scale, 
their  style  was  severe,  and  light  was  sparingly  admitted. 
In  one  word,  they  were  in  perfect  keeping  with  the 
principal  idea  of  the  religion  practised  within  them,  and 
expressed,  above  all,  the  notions  of  durability,  eternity, 
and  the  sacred  mystery  of  the  gods. 

With  the  sixth  dynasty  we  find  some  alterations  again 
taking  place  in  the  state  of  religion.  If,  under  the  succes- 
sors of  Chafra,  Ptah  reassumed  the  rights  of  which  he  had 
been  deprived  through  the  preference  given  by  this  king 
and  his  predecessors  to  Osiris  and  Ra- worship,  rights  he 
was  destined  not  again  to  lose,  it  was  now  the  turn  of  Osiris, 
whose  worship  had  certainly  for  a  time  been  neglected, 
to  raise  his  head.  The  sixth  dynasty  is  usually  called  a 
Memphitic  one,  and  it  really  appears  to  have  had  its  seat 
in  the  city  of  Ptah,  yet  with  at  least  as  good  a  right  as  the 
two  first  dynasties  it  might  be  called  Thinitic,  for  with 
Teta,  the  first  king  of  this  dynasty,  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
the  kingdom  seems  to  have  shifted  from  the  Heptanomis 
to  the  Thebaid,  from  Memphis  to  Abydos.  The  tombs  of 
Gizeh  and  Sakkarah  are  now  sealed  up,  those  of  Abydos 
are  laid  open. 

The  great  man  of  the  sixth  dynasty,  whose  prolonged 
reign  has  left  behind  various  memorials,  is  Pepi  Merira,  the 
successor  of  Teta.  The  monuments  bear  witness  to  the 
extent  of  his  territory.  Inscriptions  cut  by  his  orders  are 
found  at  Tanis,  a  town  situated  on  the  eastern  branch  of 
the  Nile,  and  even  at  this  early  period  a  place  of  impor- 
tance, though  it  was  at  a  later  period  that  it  was  des- 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.         117 

tined  to  play  a  more  prominent  part.  But  in  the  east 
likewise,  at  the  mines  of  Sinai,  in  the  south  on  the  Upper 
Nile  where  he  caused  an  inspection  of  the  mines  to  be 
made,  and  at  the  centre  of  the  country  at  Abydos,  traces 
of  the  reign  of  Pepi  have  survived.  He  was  wise  enough 
not  to  throw  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  worship  of 
Ptah.  This  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  his  reign  the 
festival  of  the  union  of  the  kingdoms  under  one  sceptre, 
a  festival  sacred  to  Ptah,  was  celebrated.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  himself  a  zealous  partisan  of  the 
southern  form  of  religion.  He  calls  himself  on  the  royal 
cartouche  "  Son  of  Hathor,  the  mistress  of  Denderah." 
That  operations  were  conducted  at  her  temple  under  his 
orders,  is  shown  by  the  inscription  above  referred  to  (p. 
112).  He  seems  not  to  have  been  of  royal  descent,  but 
was  married  to  a  princess,  who  in  right  of  her  mother 
must  have  been  the  proper  heir  to  the  throne,  and  whose 
children  reigned  in  succession  to  each  other,  although 
another  wife  was  the  favourite.  Ea-meri-anch-nes,  as 
the  mother  of  these  future  kings  was  called,  was  daughter 
of  Chua  the  divine  father,  which  was  a  designation 
given  to  the  non-reigning  princes  of  the  reigning  family. 
This  personage  was  likewise  a  priest.  He  is  buried  along 
with  his  wife  Nekabet  at  Abydos,  which  was  most  likely 
his  native  place.  Nekabet  was  specially  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  Osiris.  Upon  her  tomb  she  is  called  daughter 
of  Thot,  of  Horos,  and  of  a  goddess  who,  like  Hathor,  was 
represented  under  the  form  of  a  cow  (Kabeba,  Kubebe  ?), 
but  her  chief  title  is  "  the  consecrated  to  Osiris  of  the 
Amenti,  Lord  of  Abydos."  The  influence  of  these  royal 
personages  was  undoubtedly  the  cause  of  the  revival  of 
Osiris  worship,  and  of  the  preponderating  influence  of 
Thinis-Abydos  in  the  reign  of  Pepi.  The  principal 
ministers  of  this  king  and  of  his  son  Merenra  are  likewise 
expressly  designated  "  consecrated  to  Osiris."  The  extra- 
ordinary deification  of  the  person  of  the  king  (p.  103), 
carried  under  Pepi  to  such  a  height,  must  unquestion- 


iiS         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

ably  be  ascribed  to  the  same  influence,  since  it  was 
connected  closely  with  the  worship  of  Osiris.  It  is 
also  noticeable  that  while  the  princesses  still  filled  the 
office  of  priestess  of  Hathor,  they  no  longer  combined 
that  of  Neith  with  it,  as  used  formerly  to  be  done.  On 
the  other  hand,  traces  of  the  worship  of  Chnum,  god  of 
the  cataracts,  a  southern  and  probably  also  Theban  chief 
god,  are  discoverable. 

It  is  thus  impossible  to  deny  the  preponderance  of  the 
south  during  the  reign  of  Pepi  and  his  successors.  The 
question  arises,  whether  the  name  Imhotep,  borne  by  one 
of  Pepi's  successors,1  and  which  indicates  Ptah  worship, 
and  whether  likewise  the  name  of  Queen  Nit-aker-t,  signi- 
fying Neith  the  Wise,  an  appellation  of  one  of  the  last  royal 
personages  of  this  dynasty,  do  not  afford  proof  of  a  reac- 
tion and  of  a  revival  of  the  northern  forms  of  worship. 
This  question  cannot  be  answered  with  certainty.  The 
whole  history  of  Egyptian  religion  bears  witness,  however, 
to  this,  that  although  from  time  to  time  the  worship  of 
Osiris  and  Ea  may  have  been  cast  into  the  background  by 
newer  forms  of  adoration,  they  were  as  often  restored; 
their  importance  and  influence  increased  steadily,  and  the 
two  religions  being  combined  into  one,  forced  their  way 
everywhere,  and  ended  by  keeping  the  upper  hand  of  the 
rest. 

A  view  of  the  religion  of  the  Old  Kingdom  has  now 
been  placed  before  us,  though  in  a  summary  form.  We 
can,  however,  see  from  what  has  been  adduced  that  Osiris 
and  Ptah,  sometimes  distinct,  sometimes  confounded,  were 
the  principal  gods  during  this  epoch.  The  worship  of 
Horos,  or,  to  be  more  precise,  of  the  various  gods  who  bore 
in  common  the  designation  Hor  or  Har,  that  is  to  say,  the 
worship  of  the  visible  gods  of  the  light  and  of  the  sun, 
seems  to  have  been  more  ancient.  But  these  visible  gods 
were  nevertheless  not  displaced  to  make  room  for  others  ; 
their  worship  went  on  uninterruptedly  ;  only  certain  other 

1  See  De  Rouge's  VI  Dynasties,  p.  149. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  OLD  KINGDOM.  119 

gods  were  elevated  to  a  rank  above  theirs.  These  were 
the  gods  of  the  hidden  light,  and  of  fire  in  its  cosmic  and 
mysterious  operation.  This  fact  testifies  to  a  certain  de- 
gree of  religious  development ;  worship  is  rising  from  the 
visible  towards  the  invisible,  from  that  which  is  percep- 
tible by  the  senses  to  the  superior  power,  the  cause  of 
phenomena. 

It  is  remarkable,  also,  that  in  the  tombs  of  this  epoch  it 
is  not,  as  was  usual  at  a  later  period,  always  Osiris  who  is  re- 
presented as  guardian  and  protector  of  the  dead,  but  Anubis 
frequently  fulfils  this  office.  This  is  natural  enough,  for 
as  yet  Osiris  was  not  the  god  with  whom  each  of  the  de- 
parted became  identified  ;  the  king  alone  became  Osiris  at 
his  death.  Neither  do  we  as  yet  find  in  the  tomb-temples 
those  representations  of  different  gods,  so  numerous  at  a 
later  period,  but  rather  we  find  extreme  sobriety  in  the 
treatment  of  religious  subjects.  The  titles  given  to  the 
dead  are,  it  is  true,  for  the  most  part  religious  ones ;  but 
theology  is  still  very  simple.  It  may  hence  be  inferred 
that  although  the  religion  of  the  kings  and  of  individual 
worshippers  was  rich  and  profound,  the  power  of  the 
priests  remained  still  strictly  limited. 


(       I20      ) 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixth  dynasty  there  begins  a  period  of 
confusion  and  uncertainty.  The  kingdom  seems  to  have 
been  rent  into  different  portions,  and  the  sovereignty  exer- 
cised by  various  royal  families  which  were,  alternately  or 
simultaneously,  Memphitic  and  Heracleopolitan.  It  is 
impossible  to  decide  absolutely  as  to  the  religion  of  this 
period,  of  which  the  duration  is  uncertain.  It  is  not  till 
the  time  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  dynasties  that  light 
breaks  in  again  and  there  is  greater  clearness,  but  again 
in  the  time  of  the  thirteenth  the  light  dies  away,  soon  to 
be  wholly  extinguished  through  the  influx  of  foreigners. 
The  Middle  Kingdom  may  be  defined  best  as  the  period 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  following  three  dynasties,  that  of 
the  Mentuhoteps  and  Antefs,  that  of  the  Amenemhas  and 
Usertesens,  that  of  the  Sebekhoteps  and  Neferhoteps. 

A  mere  glance  at  the  composition  of  these  names  shows 
us  that  the  gods  who  now  attain  supremacy  are  entirely 
different  from  those  who  formerly  filled  the  highest  place. 
Osiris  and  the  gods  of  his  circle,  especially  Ea  and  the 
deities  associated  with  him,  always  continue  to  be  cele- 
brated in  the  tombs  and  on  the  sarcophagi,  but  in  other 
respects  their  worship  appears  to  be  on  the  decline  and  to 
be  confined  to  particular  localities.  This  is  the  case  with 
Ptah  in  a  still  greater  degree.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  is,  in 
this  period,  no  trace  whatever  of  homage  being  paid  to  him. 
His  worship  was  certainly  continued  at  Memphis,  but 
beyond  that  it  had  no  influence.     With  the  exception  of 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      121 

a  few  whose  worship  for  special  reasons  prevailed  to  a 
certain  extent,  and  to  whom  reference  will  be  made  after- 
wards, the  gods  who  now  stand  out  as  chief  among  all 
were  Munt  or  Mentu  the  local  god  of  Hermonthis  (An- 
res,  southern  An),  Chem  or  Min,  the  god  of  Koptos  and 
Chemnis  (Ekhinin,  Panopolis),  and  Amen  or  Amun,  the 
god  of  Thebes.  These  towns  were  all,  with  the  exception 
of  Chemnis,  situated  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
each  other.  The  exaltation  of  these  gods  is  natural  enough, 
for  they  were  the  local  gods  of  the  Thebaid.  The  three 
royal  houses  also,  under  which  tlley  attained  the  highest 
honours,  were  native  to  this  district,  and  accordingly  have 
been  designated  Theban.  We  shall  find,  however,  that 
these  gods  differed  in  name  only  from  the  earlier  ones  and 
from  each  other,  and  that  the  religion  continued  to  be 
essentially  the  same  as  before. 

The  Antefs  and  Mentuhoteps  of  the  eleventh  dynasty, 
who  to  judge  from  their  names  must  have  sprung  origi- 
nally from  An  in  the  south,  the  town  of  Mentu,  had  fixed 
their  chief  seat  at  Koptos  in  the  valley  of  Hamamat,  close 
by  the  rich  stone  quarries  that  have  been  discovered  there. 
They  adopted,  as  their  principal  god,  the  god  of  that  locality, 
Chem,  who,  in  an  inscription  of  the  time  of  Mentuhotep  III., 
is  named  "  god  of  the  mountainous  tracts." x  At  first  they 
seem  to  have  ruled  over  only  a  portion  of  the  country,  no 
more  probably  than  the  Thebaid,  but  by  degrees  their 
kingdom  became  more  extended.  Already,  under  Mentu- 
hotep II.,  they  were  masters  of  the  south  (inscription  at 
Konosso  near  Philak),  and  the  last  kings  of  this  dynasty 
had  brought  the  whole  of  Egypt,  with  perhaps  the  exception 
of  the  Delta,  under  their  sceptre.  It  seems  to  have  been 
at  this  time  that  the  town  of  Thebes,  destined  to  reach  in 
aftertimes  such  a  height  of  splendour,  was  founded. 

The  first  king  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  was  called,  after 
the  god  of  Thebes,  "Amun,"  and  his  famous  successor, 
Usertasen  I.,  laid  at  Karnak  (Thebes)  the  foundations  of  that 

1  De  Rouge,  VI  Dynasties,  p.  6. 


122         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

huge*  imperial  temple  of  Amun  that  was  still  iu  existence 
in  the  time  of  the  Hyksös,  and  after  having  been  at  a  later 
period  destroyed  was  restored  by  the  twentieth  dynasty. 
These  kings,  like  their  predecessors,  paid  homage  to  Mentu 
and  Chem.  Thus,  Usertasen  L,  in  a  temple  at  Wady-Halfa 
in  Nubia,  dedicated  to  Chem  and  Amun,  says  that  Munt  as 
god  of  the  Thebaid  had  assured  to  him  the  sovereignty  over 
certain  Nubian  tribes.1  The  same  may  be  accepted  as 
holding  good  with  regard  to  the  princes  of  the  thirteenth 
dynasty,  at  least  at  Taaud  (Krokodilopolis),  a  place  of  which 
the  peculiar  worship  was  much  favoured  by  this  dynasty. 
Munt  and  Amun  have  been  found,  Munt  being  designated 
as  god  of  the  Thebaid.2 

The  god  of  Koptos,  best  known  by  the  name  of  Chem, 
is  commonly  represented  "  in  the  form  of  his  power,"  as 
the  Egyptians  expressed  it,3  that  is,  in  the  form  of  a 
mummy ;  or,  if  the  expression  be  preferred,  en  gaine ; 
ithyf allic,  with  one  arm  uplifted  and  bearing  a  scourge,  and 
with  the  high  double  feather  on  his  head.  These  emblems 
proclaim  him  as  god  of  fertility  and  as  the  divine  ruler, 
and  his  name,  admitting  of  the  double  pronunciation  Chem 
and  Min  or  Men,  corresponded  to  this  twofold  significa- 
tion, since  Chem  appears  to  signify  the  ruler,  and  Men  the 
fertiliser.4  He  is  the  hidden  male  nature-power,  the  creator 
represented  as  fertiliser  of  the  world,  hence  at  agricultural 
festivals  he  had  the  first  place.  An  opening  flower  or  some 
similar  symbol  is  usually  placed  beside  him. 

Chem,  however,  appears  to  be  nothing  else  than  a 
peculiar  form  of  Horos.  He  is  several  times  named 
Chem,  the  conquering  Horos,  the  son  of  Osiris,  or  the 
son  of  Isis,  and  he  is  even  called  the   avenger  of  his 

i  Champollion,  Monumens,  Notice,  Brugsch  seeks  to  set  up  as  the  only 

p.  36.  one'.      Consult»   however,   Lefébure, 

2  Champollion,  ibid.,  p.  292.  chap.  xv.  du  Rituel,  p.  50  et  seq.,  and 

3  Jacques  de  Rouge,  Rev.  Arch.,  the  passages  adduced  there  from  Bur- 
1865,  ii.  333  ct  seq.  ton  and  Lepage  Renouf.   Thepronun- 

4  Lepsius  doubts  the  antiquity  ciation  Chem  is  certainly  original, 
of    the   pronunciation    Min,    which  but  Men  seems  to  be  not  less  ancient. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      123 

father,  and  in  a  single  instance— namely,  in  the  temple  of 
Thot,  where  he  makes  up  the  triad  with  Isis  and  Horos— 
he  is  placed  on  an  equality  with  Osiris.  He  is  the  expres- 
sion, the  personification  of  the  dogma  of  the  unity  of  father 
and  son,  of  Osiris  and  Horos  in  the  divine  triad,  for  his 
favourite  appellation  is,  "  husband  of  his  mother."  As  the 
seed  which  impregnates  the  earth  becomes,  when  it  is  shot 
up  to  a  stalk,  the  son  of  the  earth,  or  as  the  sun  at  evening 
sinks  down  into  the  bosom  of  the  earth  in  order  to  impreg- 
nate her,  and  in  the  morning  seems  to  come  forth  from 
her  as  her  son,  so  did  they  conceive  was  the  operation  of 
the  eternal  nature-power  regarded  as  a  divine  being  by 
whom  the  universe  is  regulated.1 

But  Chem  has  generally  been  called  also  a  form  of 
Amun.  This  is  not  quite  correct.  The  truth  is,  he  is 
essentially  the  same  as  this  god,  or  to  express  it  better, 
both  of  them  are  forms  in  some  respect  modified  of  the 
same  divine  conception.  For  we  must  certainly  assume 
that  Amun  or  Amun-ra,  the  great  god  of  Thebes,  as 
conceived  of  by  the  priests  in  the  time  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  dynasties,  was  not  the  original  deity 
of  that  name.  His  name  Men  or  Min  is  not  an  abbre- 
viation of  Amun,  but  a  surname  added  to  that  one, 
the  first  letter  of  which  was  pronounced  soft.  The 
attributes  of  Chem  are  for  the  most  part  the  same  as 
those  of  Amun.  In  several  representations  Chem  is 
called  simply  "  Amun-ra,  king  of  the  gods,"  whence  it 
appears  that  even  in  the  time  of  the  Old  Kingdom  men 
were  conscious  of  their  unity.  Amun  too  is  called  almost 
always,  and  even  in  the  sanctuary  of  his  great  temple  at 
Karnak,  "  the  husband  of  his  mother."  The  lofty  feathers 
of  Chem  which  are  mentioned  in  the  most  ancient  text  of 
chap.  xvii.  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  are  a  distinctive 
mark  of  Amun.2 

1  Lepsius,  Aelteste  Texte  des  Tod-  sentially  the  same  signification  as 
tenbuchs,  p.  52.  the  ureus  serpent.     See  Lepsius,  op. 

2  The  two  lofty  feathers,  the  sym-  cit.,  p.  52. 
bol  of  sovereignty,  seem  to  have  es- 


124         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

One  of  the  significations  of  the  Egyptian  root  men,  is 
"  to  impregnate,  beget,"  hence  it  naturally  came  about 
that  homage  was  paid  to  Amun  as  the  god  who  by  im- 
pregnation secures  the  continued  existence  of  the  universe. 
But  in  Egyptian.  Amun  likewise  signifies  "  the  hidden 
one,"  and  since  the  life-giving  power  of  nature  is  hidden, 
this  idea  could  quite  well  be  considered  as  finding  expres- 
sion in  the  god  Amun.  This  aspect  of  him  became  pro- 
bably, through  the  speculations  of  the  priests,  the  favourite 
one.  Accordingly,  he  was  regarded  as  the  invisible 
highest  deity,  and  gradually  this  conception  of  his  being 
came  more  into  prominence.  I  think,  however,  there  are 
good  reasons  for  accepting  this  purified  conception  of  the 
god  as  belonging  not  to  this  period,  but  to  a  later  one. 
"We  must  regard  this  as  the  form  assumed  in  later  times 
at  Thebes  by  the  god  of  the  Thebaid,  yet  without  the  loss 
of  his  original  character,  at  least  in  the  public  worship. 

Munt  or  Mentu  seems,  at  first  sight,  to  differ  widely 
from  the  other  deities  of  this  period  whom  we  have  men- 
tioned. Usually  he  is  a  god  of  war,  and  as  a  rule  he  has 
the  human  form  with  a  sparrow-hawk's  head,  and  on  his 
head  the  sun  with  ureus,  and  the  two  feathers  of  Amun. 
He  is  called  Lord  of  the  Thebaid  as  wTell  as  Chem  and 
Amun.  Equally  with  him,  Amun  as  Amun-ra  is  often 
depicted  with  a  sparrow-hawk's  head,  and  is,  like  Munt, 
also  a  god  of  war.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Munt,  like  the 
more  ancient  Amun  and  Chem-min,  is  essentially  the  same 
as  Horos  the  elder.1  At  Hermonthis  (a  name  which, 
perhaps,  originated  in  the  combination  Har-Munt,  Horos- 
Mónt)  he  was  worshipped  as  the  father  of  Har-pe-Chruti, 
the  child  Horos  in  seven  forms.2     It  has  been  believed  by 

i  Ebers  asserts  that  he  is  in  no  assumption    afterwards.      He    has 

respect    different    from    him,     and  tried,  vainly  as  I  think,  to  prove  that 

seems    to   propose   that    his    name  Min  or  Chem  is  a  Phoenician  and 

should  be  read   in   that  way.     See  not  an  Egyptian  deity. 
Aeg.  u.    d.    BB.    Mosis,    pp.    141,        2  Champollion,  Monumens,  Notice, 

250,  Zeits.,   1868,  p.  71.     He  pro-  p.  293  et  scq. 
mises  to  give  his   reasons  for  this 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      125 

some  that  the  week  of  seven  days  was  known  among  the 
Egyptians  as  early  as  this  ;  and  could  this  be  proved,  we 
should  be  inclined  to  suppose  there  is  a  reference  to  it 
under  the  seven  forms  of  Horos.  Horos  was  also,  as  is 
well  known,  sometimes  a  violent  deity,  god  of  death,  and 
a  war-god.  The  Mentuhoteps  named  themselves  after 
Munt,  yet  worshipped  Chem  exclusively,  a  proof  that  the 
two  were  simply  forms  of  one  and  the  same  god.  Saneha, 
a  servant  of  the  princes  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  whose 
autobiography  has  been  already  referred  to,  says  that 
when  among  the  Tennu,  the  Berbers  or  Libyans,  he 
devoted  the  concubines  of  his  conquered  enemy  to  Mentu. 
The  meaning  of  this  is  unmistakable.  There  appears 
accordingly  to  have  been,  at  least  among  the  Libyans, 
unchaste  practices  combined  with  the  worship  of  Mentu. 
That  being  so,  he  cannot  have  differed  essentially  from 
Chem,  the  ithyfallic  god,  and  from  Amun ;  and  in  this 
report  we  find  another  proof  that  Munt  was  properly  the 
chief  deity  of  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

The  essential  signification  of  this  god  is  best  seen  from 
a  festival  held  in  his  honour  on  the  first  of  the  month 
Pachons,  and  which,  though  not  mentioned  or  represented 
till  the  time  of  the  Eamesids  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  dynasty,  undoubtedly  dates  from  the  time  of 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  and  possibly  from  a  time  even  more 
ancient.  The  principal  deity  of  this  festival  is  Chem,  the 
ithyfallic  Amun,  hence  it  came  about  that  for  centuries, 
even  after  Amun-ra  had  become  the  chief  god,  it  was  in 
his  sacred  city  Thebes  that  this  festival  was  celebrated. 
There  occur  on  the  sculptured  representation  at  Medinet- 
Abu,  two  images  of  the  deity  in  the  forms  usual  at  Koptos 
and  Chemnis,  one  uncovered,  standing  on  a  litter  with  a 
canopy  borne  by  the  priests,  having  beside  him  the 
symbols  of  fertility ;  the  other,  inside  the  sacred  chest ; 
but  there  is  no  doubt  these  represent  the  same  god,  who, 
after  having  received  the  offerings  in  his  sanctuary,  was 
carried  round  by  the  priests  in  solemn  procession.    Behind 


126         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

the  image  on  its  litter,  four  priests  followed  bearing  a 
sacred  ark  in  the  same  manner  as  was  customary  with  the 
Israelites,  and  out  of  the  ark  there  sprouted  forth  a  tree 
with  five  branches.1  In  two  instances  the  white  or  yellow 
bull  (Mena),  which  belonged  to  Min  or  Cheni,  occurs  in 
the  festivity ;  in  one  the  king  cuts  a  bundle  of  stalks  of 
grain  with  a  golden  sickle,  and  corn  is  offered  to  the  bull; 
in  the  other,  incense  is  offered  to  him.  Another  sacred 
act  in  the  festival  is  letting  fly  the  sacred  geese,  who  were 
to  tell  to  the  four  regions  of  the  four  winds  that  Horos,  in 
the  person  of  the  reigning  king,  had  ascended  the  throne. 
This  wTould  hence  seem  to  have  been  a  coronation  festival, 
which,  nevertheless,  was  celebrated  annually.  The  geese 
bore  the  names  of  the  four  genii  of  the  dead,  Hapi,  Amset, 
Tuau-Mutef,  and  Kebh-senuf,  and  were  accordingly  con- 
nected with  these ;  it  is  however  certain  that  here  they 
are,  before  all,  symbols  of  fruitf ulness.  The  ideas  expressed 
in  this  festival  are  evident  enough.  It  is  dedicated  to 
Horos-Chem,  the  sun-god,  as  a  fertilising  nature-power, 
since  the  fertility  of  the  land  chiefly  depends  on  him. 
But  the  guarantee  for  his  blessing  and  protection  is,  that 
his  substitute,  the  king,  bear  rule  in  the  country,  hence  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  king's  accession  are  published  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  The  fertility  of  Egypt  did,  indeed,  in 
a  great  measure,  depend  on  the  king,  for  only  by  him 
could  those  great  public  works  be  carried  through,  which 
were  such  an  indispensable  means  of  enabling  the  whole 
country  to  share  in  the  blessings  of  the  Nile.  The  king 
is  actually  for  Egypt  in  a  sense  the  giver  of  life,  the  god 
of  fertility.  Hence,  the  cutting  of  the  sheaf  is  an  act  of 
the  highest  importance  in  the  festival,  a  solemn  reminder 


i  An  ark  of  this  kind  was  called  hidden  seed  which  comes  to  life 
hen,  i.e.,  the  sacred,  the  consecrated,  again  in  the  tree.  It  is  noticeable 
Upon  one  like  this  from  which  there  that  the  ark  of  the  Israelites  like- 
sprouts  an  acacia  {schont),  is  in-  wise  was  ordered  to  be  made  of 
scribed  (at  Thebes),  'k  Osiris  sprouts  acacia  wood.  See  Brugsch,  Eeise- 
forth."  The  ark  was  thus  an  em-  berichte,  p.  127. 
blem  of  eternal  life  symbolised  by  the 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      127 

to  the  prince  of  what  he  is  bound  to  perform,  a  vow  made 
by  himself  that  he  will  see  to  it,  that  the  people  do  not 
through  his  negligence  suffer  from  want  of  bread. 

The  eternal  interchange  of  death  and  life'is  the  principal 
thought  in  the  theology  of  the  Egyptians  :  they  saw  it  in 
the  course  of  the  sun,  they  saw  it  in  the  changing  seasons, 
and  upon  it  they  based  their  faith  in  man's  immortality. 
The  same  gods  often  expressed  these  three  conceptions;  they 
were  at  one  and  the  same  time  gods  of  the  sun,  gods  of 
fruitfulness,  and  gods  of  the  under  world.  Some,  how- 
ever, gained  a  more  definite  signification,  by  which  they 
were  brought  into  closer  relation  with  one  or  other  of  these 
conceptions.  Thus  Osiris,  while  he  is  a  sun-god,  and 
sometimes  god  of  fertility  as  well,  became  almost  ex- 
clusively the  great  god  of  the  dead,  while  Chem  on  the 
other  hand,  although  connected  with  the  under  world,  as 
for  instance  in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  and  though  his 
nature  shows  that  he  is  a  solar  deity,  became  par  excel- 
lence the  god  of  fertility. 

This  religion  is  thus,  in  fact,  simply  a  deification  of  the 
fertilising  power  of  nature,  the  religion  of  a  nation  en- 
gaged principally  in  agriculture,  for  it  was  not  till  later, 
under  the  warrior  kings  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
dynasties,  that  Munt  assumed  his  warlike  aspect.  This 
peaceful  character  of  the  religion  corresponds  entirely 
with  what  we  know  of  the  condition  of  the  kingdom 
during  this  period.  Under  the  twelfth  dynasty  especially, 
the  state  of  Egypt  was  in  the  highest  degree  flourishing,  a 
prosperity  due  to  the  diligent  pursuit  of  agriculture,  and 
nourished  by  the  encouragement  given  to  the  arts  of  peace. 
There  was  a  complete  revival  of  the  glory  of  the  Old 
Kingdom.  It  was  a  time  of  universal  prosperity,  peace 
reigned  throughout  the  country,  which  at  that  time  ex- 
tended on  the  north  to  the  sea,  on  the  east  to  Sinai,  on 
the  south  to  the  country  of  the  negroes.  Inscriptions  of 
Usertasen  I.  have  been  discovered  at  San,  on  the  Tanaitic 
branch  of  the  Nile,  at  Sinai,  and  at  Wady  Haifa  in  Nubia, 


128         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

and  others  of  Usertasen  III.  have  been  found  in  Ethiopia. 
Numerous  monuments  bear  witness  to  the  power  of  these 
kings,  their  love  of  grandeur,  and  the  delight  they  took  in 
building.  Some  among  them  preserved  their  high  renown 
down  to  a  later  time.  Usertasen  I.  was  so  great  in  the 
estimation  of  posterity,  that  an  Ethiopian,  or  rather 
Egyptian  king  (Nektanebos),  one  of  those  who  took  refuge 
in  Ethiopia,  and  a  Greek  prince  (Ptolemseus,  son  of  Lagus), 
counted  it  an  honour  to  bear  his  regal  appellation.1  User- 
tasen III.,  who  erected  two  strongholds  at  Semneh  in 
Ethiopia,  past  which  no  negroes  were  allowed  to  go  till 
they  had  paid  tribute  to  his  majesty,  was,  as  is  shown  by 
numerous  inscriptions,  worshipped  as  a  special  god  of  the 
country  throughout  all  Nubia,  and  even  by  so  late  a 
monarch  as  Thutmes  I.  a  temple  was  erected  to  him  there. 
Amenemha  III.  is  the  famous  Moeris,  i.e.,  the  inundations- 
king,  whom  Egypt  has  to  thank  not  only  for  an  improved 
system  of  canals,  but  even  for  an  entire  new  province 
acquired  by  peaceful  means.  I  refer  to  the  Eayoom 
(Moeris),  which  he  artificially  made  more  productive  by 
the  excavation  of  a  vast  basin.  Feeling  conscious  that 
this  work  more  than  any  other  was  fitted  to  make  his 
name  immortal,  he  erected  there  not  only  a  magnificent 
palace,  the  so-called  Labyrinth,  but  also  his  pyramid. 
He  seems  to  have  owed  the  name  Mceris  to  his  regulation 
of  the  inundation. 

Like  the  princes  of  this  dynasty,  their  servants  and  the 
great  personages  of  the  kingdom  erected  colossal  monu- 
ments and  lived  in  princely  style.  To  credit  their  own 
assurances,  all  this  grandeur  was  not,  as  in  the  times 
before  them,  kept  up  by  means  of  oppression  and  extor- 
tion. The  inscriptions  which  they  caused  to  be  engraved 
on  their  tombs  breathe  a  humane  spirit  and  a  certain 
moral   earnestness.      Work  was    promoted   everywhere. 

i  The  Egyptian  kings  at  and  after  regal  appellation  by  which  they  were 
this  time  bore  besides  their  family  mostly  called  was  that  which  they 
name   three  or  four   others.      The     assumed  at  their  accession. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      129 

In  years  of  scarcity  careful  district  governors  even  took 
measures  beforehand  to  avert  famine.  Exact  in  their  col- 
lection of  tribute  for  the  royal  house,  and  on  the  watch 
lest  anything  should  be  stolen,  they  testify  upon  their 
tombs  with  emphasis  that  they  were  no  men  of  violence. 
"No  little  child,"  thus  says  the  nomarch  Amenj  Amen- 
emha  at  Beni  -  Hassan,  "  was  vexed  by  me,  no  widow 
was  ill-treated,  no  fisherman  disturbed,  no  herdsman 
obstructed.  There  is  no  pentarch  whose  men  I  have 
forced  to  do  labours.  I  made  the  inhabitants  live/'  thus 
he  goes  on  to  testify,  "  for  I  offered  to  them  the  products 
of  the  land,  so  that  there  were  no  famines  in  the  province. 
I  have  given  equally  to  the  widow  and  to  the  married 
woman ;  in  all  that  I  gave  I  have  shown  no  preference  to 
the  great  above  the  small."  Humane  feelings  like  these 
are  very  remarkable  in  such  remote  antiquity.  Saneha, 
so  often  before  referred  to,  recounts  his  own  praises  in 
phrases  similar  to  those  of  Amenj,  for  modesty  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  one  of  the  virtues  of  the  Egyptian 
grandees.  "  I  gave,"  he  says,  "water  to  the  thirsty ;  I  put 
the  traveller  on  his  way ;  I  removed  the  oppressor  from 
the  Sakti,  and  put  an  end  to  violence."  Utterances  like 
these,  by  which  we  are  involuntarily  reminded  of  the 
declarations  of  Job,  give  a  favourable  idea  of  the  moral 
condition  of  Egyptian  society  in  those  days,  and  thus  also 
of  the  influence  exercised  by  religion.  It  is  true,  funeral 
orations,  especially  when  the  authors  of  them  are  also 
their  subjects,  have  never  been  famous  for  veracity.  The 
reality,  no  doubt,  did  not  in  every  case  come  up  to  the 
ideal  here  sketched  to  us.  In  other  respects  the  humanity 
of  the  Egyptians,  which  has  frequently  been  compared  to 
that  of  the  gospel,  had  limits,  and  is  seen  to  have  diverged 
widely  from  that  of  the  New  Testament.  That  very 
Saneha,  who  refreshed  the  thirsty  and  protected  the  op- 
pressed, has  no  difficulty  about  punishing  his  conquered 
enemy  pitilessly.  He  causes  the  concubines  of  this  enemy, 
innocent  victims  of  his  vengeance,  to  be  devoted  to  the 

1 


i3o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

deity.  He  appropriates  all  his  enemy's  goods,  plunders  his 
house,  and  proceeds  in  all  this  upon  the  maxim  that  he  ought 
to  do  to  his  enemy  as  his  enemy  had  meant  to  do  to  him. 

Meanwhile  these  nobles  did  not  neglect  religion,  and  the 
morality  they  advocated  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a 
thing  apart  from  religion.  They  brought  presents  to  the 
temples  with  a  liberal  hand.  Chnumhotep,  colleague  and 
successor  of  Amenj,  assures  us  in  his  rich  and  remarkable 
tomb  that  he  has  been  beneficent  to  the  sanctuaries,  and 
that  he  has  caused  statues  of  himself  to  be  placed  there. 
"  I  have  given,"  so  he  testifies,  "  offerings  and  libations  to 
the  temples,  appointed  corn  to  the  priests,  and  have  shown 
myself  beneficent  to  them."  Though  people  were  obliged 
to  work  hard,  opportunities  of  relaxation  were  given  by 
the  numerous  religious  festivals,  to  the  embellishment  of 
which  people  of  distinction  did  not  fail  to  contribute.  The 
festivals  were  very  numerous.  Besides  those  of  the  full 
moon  and  the  half  moon  there  were  two  new  year  festi- 
vals, one  for  the  civil  and  one  for  the  fixed  year.  Other 
annual  holidays  were  the  feast  of  the  great  and  that  of  the 
little  warmth ;  but  the  feast  of  the  five  epagomenoi,  or 
intercalary  days,  dedicated  to  the  principal  gods  of  the 
Osirian  circle,  Osiris,  Isis,  Set,  Nephthys,  and  Horos,  was, 
above  all  others,  celebrated  with  extraordinary  solemnity 
and  delight.1 

I  have  already  remarked  that  the  kings  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty  continued  to  honour  the  deity  of  the  Thebaid  in 
his  three  forms  just  as  the  kings  of  the  eleventh  dynasty 
had  done.  He  was  also  invoked  by  them  under  the  name 
of  Horos  (inscription  of  Usertasen  I.  at  Wady-Halfa).  But 
they  nevertheless  did  not  cease  to  keep  up  the  ancient 
worships  of  Egypt,  and  they  considered  themselves  bound 
to  do  this  as  being  rulers  over  the  whole  country.  Helio- 
polis  was  not  neglected.  The  single  obelisk  of  the  Old 
Kingdom  that  we  know  of  was  erected  there  by  Usertasen 
I.     Obelisks  like  this  had  a  twofold  purpose :  primarily, 

1  See  Brugsch,  Histoire  cTEgypte,  pp.  56,  59. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      131 

they  symbolised  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  were  therefore 
covered  with  gilding ;  their  other  purpose  was  to  express 
steadfastness  and  durability.  Or  properly,  they  repre- 
sented the  sun's  rays,  upon  which,  as  upon  glittering 
pillars,  the  vault  of  heaven  seemed  to  rest.  They  were  a 
stone  representation  of  the  props  of  Shu,  upon  which  Ea 
walks.1  Hence  at  Heliopolis,  the  town  of  Shu,  they  were 
found  in  great  number.  In  the  inscription  of  his  obelisk, 
Usertasen  calls  himself  "  beloved  by  the  spirits  of  Helio- 
polis," whence  it  is  evident  that  the  sacred  city  still  kept 
its  earlier  fame. 

Not  unfrequently  there  occurs  in  this  period,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  the  name  of  the 
god  Chnum  (also  Num,  formerly  read  mostly  always 
Kneph).  He  is,  as  his  name  indicates,  the  architect,  the 
creator  of  the  universe,  in  whom  the  two  ideas  of  the 
cosmic  fire  and  of  the  breath  of  life  are  combined.  His 
worship  goes  back  to  very  early  times.  We  meet  with 
it,  in  fact,  under  the  first  dynasties;  but  it  was  after- 
wards, especially  in  the  epoch  with  which  we  are  now 
concerned,  very  greatly  developed.  It  is  time,  therefore, 
that  I  should  speak  of  this  god,  who  was  worshipped  in 
all  periods  of  the  Egyptian  kingdom.  It  is  certainly  a 
mistake  to  place  him,  as  some  do,  at  the  head  of  the  whole 
Egyptian  world  of  gods  in  the  character  of  "  the  spirit." 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  in  the  estimation  of  pious 
Egyptians  he  took  a  high  rank.  Chnum  is  the  local  god 
of  the  cataracts,  and  was  thus  worshipped  principally  at 
Elephantine  (Ab),  on  the  island  Konosso  (Kebh).  Two 
goddesses,  Sati  and  Anke,  or  Anuka,  were  revered  there 
along  with  him.  It  cannot  now  be  ascertained  with  cer- 
tainty whether  his  worship  was  brought  thither  from 
somewhere  else,  or  whether  this  was  his  original  home ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  he  was  worshipped  in  neighbouring 

1  See  F.  Chabas,  Traduction  com-  Obelisken  und  Pyramiden,  Sitz.  Ber. 

plète    des     Inscriptions     Hiérogly-  der   Bayer.  Akademie,   d.  Wiss.    z. 

phiques  de  l'Obélisque  de  Louqsor.  München,  1867,  I.  i.  93  et  seq. 
Paris,  1 868.     See  also  Lauth,  Ueber 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

localities  also,  and  that  his  nature  and  that  of  the  two 
goddesses  who  stood  at  his  side  was  in  itself  sufficient 
to  make  him  local  god  of  the  cataracts..  Chnum  is  the 
breath  of  God,  in  so  far  as  the  spirit  and  the  wind  were 
one  to  the  thought  of  ancient  peoples ;  and  in  especial  he 
was  the  breath  of  God  as  creative  power,  not  unlike  the 
Hebrew  conception  of  the  Euach  Jahveh,  who  in  the 
beginning  brooded  over  the  waters.  In  this  character 
Chnum  was  naturally  fitted  for  being  god  of  the  cataracts, 
which  are,  as  it  were,  the  beginning  of  Egyptian  waters,  and 
were  called  by  the  Egyptians  the  source  of  the  waters.1  On 
this  account  he  was  called  the  god  of  the  head  of  the 
Nomes,  because  the  nomes  (districts)  of  Egypt  begin  at  the 
cataracts.  In  the  same  way  Sati,  whose  emblem  is  an  arrow 
shot  through  the  skin  of  a  beast,  and  whose  name  is  derived 
from  throwing,  or  even  signifies  "  arrow,"  belongs  to  the 
streams  of  the  cataracts  that  dash  down  with  the  swiftness 
of  an  arrow.  In  the  same  root,  moreover,  lies  the  idea  of 
impregnation,  which  was  likewise  expressed  by  Chnum's 
symbol,  the  ram.  The  name  of  Anka,  Chnum's  second 
companion,  expresses  the  idea  of  "  embrace."  She  is  thus 
the  one  who  conceives,  in  this  case,  of  course,  the  goddess 
of  the  earth.  This  is  proved  beyond  question  by  an 
inscription  in  the  Sothis-temple  at  Assouan  in  Nubia, 
where  it  is  said,  "  The  divine  Sothis,  the  in  love  embrac- 
ing one  (anka-t),  in  order  to  make  pregnant  the  land  in 
this  name  Anuka" ; 2  that  is,  Sothis,  the  star  Sirius,  the  soul 
of  Isis,  and  thus  the  protectress  of  the  earth  is  named 
Anuka,  as  being  the  embracing  one  who  is  impregnated  by 
the  god  of  heaven.  In  the  swift  waters,  which,  being  driven 
on  by  the  breath  of  the  deity,  made  the  ground  fertile,  the 
Egyptians  saw  a  divine  operation,  a  representation  of  the 
creative  spirit.  We  have  here  the  ancient  and  universally 
occurring  myth  of  the  heaven,  or  the  soul  of  the  heaven, 
impregnating  the  earth  by  means  of  the  celestial  waters 

1  Inscription   of   Amen-meri-nut.         2  Brugsch,  Hierogly.  dem.  W.  B., 
Mariette,  Kev.  Arch.,  1S65,  ii.  163.       p.  92. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      133 

localised  in  this  case  in  the  cataracts,  which  were  to  the 
Egyptians  the  source  of  the  fertility  of  their  country. 
Everywhere,  too,  these  celestial  waters  are  personified  as 
goddesses  of  rivers,  at  first  of  heaven,  then  of  earth,  like 
the  Ganges,  the  Sarasvati,  &c.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
Persian  name  of  the  river  Tigris,  and  the  cuneiform  by 
which  it  was  denoted  in  Assyria,  signify  arrow.  The 
same  idea  may  likewise  be  expressed  in  solar  symbolism, 
and  then  Chnum  is  the  sun-god,  as  being  the  producer 
of  the  wind,  Chnum-ra  (a  combination  which,  however, 
is  apparently  not  ancient) ;  Sati  is  the  divine  ray  of  the 
sun,  the  means  by  which  the  earth  is  impregnated,  and 
which  is  sometimes  represented  as  a  form  of  Chnum. 
Anka  alone  retains  her  signification.  Here,  too,  she  is 
the  mother-earth  as  a  divine  being,  and  in  accordance 
with  this  she  is  called,  e.g.,  at  Dakkeh  in  Nubia,  the 
king's  nurse.  The  names  of  the  principal  priest  and 
priestess  of  Chnum  at  Elephantiue  (Abu)  correspond  to 
the  signification  of  these  deities.  The  former  was  named 
Tes-ra,  "  he  who  brings  near  the  heaven"  (Mariette), 
or,  better  perhaps,  "  he  who  creates  the  heaven."  The 
latter  bore  the  name  Senck,  which  is,  ray  of  the  sun. 
His  sacred  bark  was  named  after  his  common  symbol, 
chaker-ba,  ornament  of  the  ram,  and  also  simply  chaker- 
num.  I  give  these  examples  in  order  to  show  from  them 
the  symbolical  character  of  the  Egyptian  religion.  Never 
was  symbolism  carried  to  such  a  height ;  never  was  it  so 
universally  applied  as  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 

The  mode  in  which  creation  by  Chnum  is  represented 
varies  very  much.1  At  one  time  his  work  is  no  more  than 
plastic ;  he  is  called  the  great  divine  former,  the  first 
architect  who  created  with  his  hands  the  gods  and  god- 

1  It  occurs  to  me  that  the  god  himself  &s  former,  and  that  this  Tetun 
Tetun  (or  Dudun,  as  Brugsch  reads  has  some  connection  with  the  name  of 
it),  who  was  worshipped  at  Semneh  Chnum's  northern  colleague,  Ptah, 
with  Chnum,  but  always  received  a  tatanen.  TJsertasen  III.,  in  an  in- 
less  degree  of  honour  (see  Lepsius,  scription  at  the  place  just  named,  is 
Briefe  aus  Aegyp.,  p.  259,  and  called  "  son  of  Chnum  and  Tetun." 
Brugsch,  Histoire,  p.  65),  is  Chnum 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

desses,  and  who  stands  prepared  to  form  the  son  of  Isis 
upon  the  revolving  disk,  the  potter's  wheel,  a  representa- 
tion irresistibly  reminding  us  of  the  biblical  figure  in 
which  Jahveh  is  called  a  potter.1  Then  again  the  descrip- 
tion is  more  exalted,  or  at  least  simpler,  and  he  is  called 
"  the  creator  of  beings,  the  first  existing,  the  father  of 
fathers,  the  mother  of  mothers."  The  foundation,  how- 
ever, of  all  these  representations  remains  always  natural- 
istic, the  wind  as  the  breath  of  God  that  moves  the  cosmic 
waters,  and  so  in  the  beginning  makes  the  earth  fruitful 
and  habitable. 

The  name  of  the  kings  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  which  is 
by  turns  Sebekhotep  and  Neferhotep,  indicates  that  during 
their  reigns  the  god  Sebak,  with  the  crocodile's  head,  en- 
joyed high  honour.  The  causes  that  determined  this  must 
be  looked  for  so  early  as  in  the  twelfth  dynasty.  Sebak 
appears  to  have  been  a  native  of  Ethiopia,  and  to  have 
been  introduced  thence  into  Egypt.2  Usertasen  III.  was 
the  first  who  subdued  Ethiopia  entirely,  and  his  son  Ame- 
nemha  Mceris  appears  to  have  been  a  devoted  worshipper 
of  Sebak,  for  he  imported  the  worship  of  this  deity  into 
the  Eayoom,  the  new  province  he  had  founded,  the  capital 
of  which  the  Greeks  called  Krokodilopolis,  and  he  called  his 
daughter,  who,  after  his  son,  succeeded  him  on  the  throne, 
and  who  closes  the  twelfth  dynasty,  Sebek-nefru,  a  name 
the  component  parts  of  which  recur  in  all  the  kings'  names 
of  the  thirteenth  dynasty.  Eoyal  patronage  explains  the 
great  and  speedy  spread  of  this  foreign  cultus.  The  Egyp- 
tian town  where  it  was  introduced  is,  for  reasons  easy  to 
understand,  said  to  have  been  Ombos.  Sebak  is  at  least 
regularly  designated  "  gocl  of  Ombos."    There,  from  of  old, 


1  In' the"' well-known  romance  of  termination  ah  has'  mnch  affinity 
Anepu  and  Batau,  R a  orders  Chnum  with  the  Ethiopian  article,  so  that 
to  form  a  wife  for  Batau  also.  He  Sebak  may  perhaps  be  the  Kushite 
is  thus  here  a  kind  of  Prometheus.  Seb  or  Kronos.     This  last  supposi- 

2  Later  Ethiopian  kings  are  fre-  tion  Champollion  adopts,  though  for 
quently  named  after  him.  His  name,  quite  other  reasons,  in  Wilkinson, 
too,  has  an  Ethiopian  sound.     The  M.  and  C,  v.  37. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      135 

Set,  the  Egyptian  crocodile  god,  was  worshipped.  In 
other  places  likewise  of  the  Thebaid,  as  at  Koptos,  Silsilis, 
and  Tuphium  (Tauut),  the  worship  of  Sebak  was  estab- 
lished, and  thence  it  was  transferred  to  the  Eayoom. 

Sebak  was,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  a  god  of  the  Nile,  and 
more  particularly  of  the  inundations.  There  was  a  wide- 
spread belief  among  the  Egyptians  that  the  crocodiles 
deposited  their  eggs  precisely  at  the  limit  to  which,  each 
year,  the  inundation  would  attain.  Hence  it  was  inferred 
that  it  was  one  of  those  animals  who,  as  king  of  the  river, 
regulated  the  height  of  the  overflow.  This  also  led  to  the 
worship  of  Sebak  as  local  god  of  the  Fayoom,  a  new  pro- 
vince created  by  the  muddy  deposits  of  the  river. 

A  feature  indicating  that  Sebak  is  both  a  foreign  deity 
and  one  of  the  many  forms  of  the  great  creative  god  is  to 
be  seen  in  the  two  goddesses  that  are  usually  found  beside 
him.  The  difficulty  of  finding  him  a  consort  was  in  gen- 
eral got  over  simply  by  assigning  to  him  as  companion  the 
goddess  of  the  place  where  his  worship  was  established  ;  x 
yet  not  ^infrequently,  at  least  from  the  time  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty  downwards,  he  is  found  coupled  with 
the  goddesses  Tannit  (Tanit)  and  Anit.2  Who  these  god- 
desses are  is  not  difficult  to  determine.  Tanit  and  Anit, 
or  Anahid,  were  two  forms  of  the  same  widely- spread 
Mesopotamian  goddess  who  is  met  with  among  the 
Phoenicians,  Arabs,  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Hebrews,  and 
even  among  the  Persians,  and  in  later  times  also  among 
the  Greeks  and  Eomans.3  They  are  the  two  female  sides 
of  the  deity :  Tannit,  called  simply  "  the  goddess  of  hea- 
ven," is  the  virgin  (Artemis,  Athene,  Istar  of  Arbela) ; 
Anit,  who  wears  the  head-dress  of  a  mother,  and  is  called 
"  the  great  power,"  that  is,  the  productive  power,  is  the 

1  Thus,  among  other  instances,  he  reads  the  names  there  Tennit  and 
occurs  once  with  Anka,  and  has  Anup  Penit,  which  at  this  date  he  would 
for  his  son.    Champollion,  Monumens  doubtless  allow  is  a  mistake. 
Notice,  p.  36.  3  See  my  Godsdienst  von    Zara- 

2  See   Lepsius,  Aeltester  Götter-  thustra,  p.  1 80  et  seq. 
kreis,  Taf.,  i.  3,  ii.   1,  &c.     Lepsius 


136  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

maternal  goddess  (Demeter,  Istar  of  Nineveh),  and  cor- 
responds entirely  to  the  Arabic- Persian  Anahita.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  these  goddesses  have  just  as  little 
claim  to  be  considered  true  Egyptian  as  Sebak.  Nor 
could  they  have  originally  belonged  to  him,  even  though 
we  accept  it  as  being  the  case  that  they  were  brought  to 
Africa  by  the  Ethiopians,  who  about  this  time  migrated 
thither  from  Arabia,  driven  out,  it  would  seem,  by  Phoe- 
nicians (Puns).  While  this  may  possibly  have  been  the 
case,  it  cannot  now  be  proved. 

The  view  has  been  adopted  that  Sebak  is  the  darkness 
of  night  which  triumphs  over  the  sun,  and  is  in  its  turn 
overcome  by  him  (Mariette).  I  think,  however,  that  those 
who  adopt  this  explanation  have  allowed  themselves  to  be 
misled  by  a  later  transformation  in  the  part  played  by  this 
god.  He  was  not,  any  more  than  Set,  originally  a  male- 
volent deity,  and,  like  him,  he  is  often  seen  on  the  poop 
of  the  bark  of  the  sun,  and  thus  among  the  number  of 
those  who  fight  by  the  side  of  Horos,  and  not  among  his 
adversaries.  At  Ombos  his  worship  is  found  associated 
with  that  of  Horos. 

Erom  what  has  been  said  above,  we  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Sebak  was  a  god  of  the  inundation,  and  as 
such  was  looked  upon  also  as  a  god  who  was  creator.  The 
principal  centres  of  his  worship  were,  without  exception, 
towns  situated  at  important  points  of  the  Nile,  e.g.,  Koptos, 
Arsinöe,  and  Athribis,  or  else  on  the  canals  and  artificial 
works'  by  which  the  fertilising  stream  was  carried  to  dis- 
tant places.  At  Silsilis,  where  the  Nile  was  worshipped 
and  placed  in  the  rank  of  chief  deities,  the  place  filled  by 
this  god  was  sometimes  occupied  by  Sebak  (in  the  Spéos). 
What  is  said  by  Aelian  and  Eusebius  about  the  crocodile 
being  a  symbol  to  the  Egyptian  of  the  drinking  water,  and 
of  the  fertilising  water  of  the  inundations,  is  in  perfect 
accordance  with  these  attributes. 

Certain  gods  nevertheless,  though  very  different  from 
each  other,  have  the  same  symbols,  and  the  crocodile, 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      137 

along  with  some  other  fierce  animals,  was  also  sacred  to 
Set.  When  this  gocl  fell  in  public  estimation,  and  a  war 
of  extermination  against  the  crocodiles  was  begun  in  the 
nomes  where  the  worship  of  Horos  and  of  Hathor  flour- 
ished, Sebak  suffered  equally  from  this  unpopularity,  and 
the  interpreters  of  more  modern  times  forgot  that  origin- 
ally he  was  in  any  way  at  all  different  from  Set.  But 
even  at  a  more  ancient  period  Hapi  (who  is  not  to  be 
confounded  with  Hapi,  the  bull  Apis)  appears  to  have 
consigned  Sebak  to  a  position  of  obscurity. 

Hapi,  or  Hapimou,  is  the  god  of  the  Nile.  I  should 
not  venture  to  assert  that  his  worship  attained  a  posi- 
tion of  importance  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom,  but  in  the  period  of  the  New  Kingdom  he 
was  worshipped  with  great  fervour,  especially  in  the 
localities  touched  by  the  Nile  in  its  course.  It  has  been 
already  noticed  that  the  Nile  has,  along  with  Sebak,  a 
place  in  the  higher  triad,  and  therefore  among  the  gods 
who  are  creators.  This  is  seen  at  Silsilis  in  a  temple 
constructed  in  a  cavity  of  the  rocks,  which  at  this  spot 
leaves  to  the  river  only  a  very  confined  passage.  The 
Nile  god  had  also  temples  at  Heliopolis  and  at  Mem- 
phis. It  is  to  be  inferred,  from  a  hymn  dedicated  to 
him  (Pap.  Sail.,  IL,  et  Anastasi  VII.,  published  by  M. 
Maspéro),  that  the  Nile  on  earth  was  only  one  form  of 
the  heavenly  Nile,  source  of  the  fertilising  waters  of  the 
universe,  whose  name  no  one  knows,  who  does  not  reveal 
his  forms,  and  of  whom  consequently  it  is  impossible  to 
make  any  image.  "  No  abode  contains  him,  people  do  not 
offer  sacrifices  to  him,  but  all  the  offerings  made  to  the 
other  gods  are  to  be  considered  as  dedicated  to  him." 
This  god,  the  date  of  whose  origin  is  perhaps  in  the  period 
with  which  we  are  now  occupied,  continued  for  long  to 
receive  great  honour.  Down  to  the  latest  times  of  the 
existence  of  the  kingdom  of  Egypt,  and  even  under  Eoman 
rule,  Hapi  was  still  an  object  of  worship. 


133  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

As  we  did  with  the  preceding  period,  we  shall  now  try 
to  review  the  religious  development  of  this  one,  the  lead- 
ing facts  of  which  have  just  been  summed  up.  In  doing 
so,  the  first  thing  we  may  consider  established  is,  that  the 
religion  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  general  condition  of 
the  kingdom  in  this  period.  The  worship  of 'gods,  such  as 
we  have  described,  is  precisely  what  might  be  expected  in 
a  period  of  great  agricultural  prosperity,  when  all  the  arts 
of  peace  flourished  and  were  brought  to  great  perfection, 
and  Egypt  was  overspread  with  a  regular  network  of 
new  canals.  In  other  respects,  what  was  said  of  the  Old 
Kingdom  is  no  less  true  of  the  Middle  ;  the  kinsjs  exercise 
absolute  power  not  limited  or  counterbalanced  by  that  of 
any  priestly  caste.  Yet  they  are  very  religious,  they  sup- 
port and  protect  religion,  and  even  go  so  far  as  to  create 
new  forms  of  worship  and  new  priesthoods.  One  of  them, 
Usertasen  III.,  even  became  the  local  god  commonly  wor- 
shipped in  Nubia.  Beneath  the  kings,  the  local  govern- 
ment was  carried  out  by  great  officers  of  state,  who  were 
doubtless  descendants  of  ancient  local  sovereigns,  and  thus 
privileged  to  discharge  sacerdotal  functions  also,  yet  none 
the  less  on  that  account  they  were  laymen.  Their  inscrip- 
tions testify  to  their  moral  sense,  and  their  care  for  the 
temples  of  the  gods  that  were  within  the  districts  over 
which  they  ruled.  The  literature  of  this  period  is  empha- 
tically what  would  now  be  called  secular  literature.  This 
is  shown  by  the  maxims  of  Ptahhotep  and  the  autobio- 
graphy of  Saneha.  Nevertheless  there  are  not  awanting 
commentaries  on  the  ancient  magical  texts  which  after- 
wards were  incorporated  in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead."  The 
priests  seem,  however,  to  have  taken  only  a  secondary 
part  in  this  period. 

A  study  of  the  sepulchral  monuments  gives  a  like  result. 
On  the  walls  of  the  tombs  few  images  of  the  gods  have  as 
yet  been  met  with,  nor  have  any  been  discovered  even  in 
the  monuments  dating  from  the  thirteenth  dynasty.     In 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  MIDDLE  KINGDOM.      139 

the  inscriptions,  too,  with  which  these  paintings  are 
accompanied,  the  names  of  the  gods  are  very  rarely  found. 
The  titles  of  honour  ascribed  to  the  dead  have  in  general 
a  complexion  more  civil  than  religious.  Especially  re- 
markable in  this  respect  are  the  famous  tombs  of  Chnum- 
hotep  and  of  Amenj  Amenemha  at  Beni-Hassan.  In 
them  the  deceased  is  represented  in  the  exercise  of  his 
profession,  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  or  taking  part  in 
recreations.  JSTor  must  we  think  these  paintings  were 
intended  to  preserve  and  transmit  to  posterity  the  remem- 
brance of  the  scenes  which  they  represent,  for  no  one  was 
allowed  to  enter  the  tombs.  It  was  all  done  strictly  with 
regard  to  the  dead  person.  It  was  the  application  of  an 
ancient  belief  of  animistic  worships,  in  virtue  of  which 
whatever  was  depicted  on  behalf  of  the  deceased  was 
actually  of  use  to  him  in  the  life  to  come.  These  tombs 
accordingly  tell  us  what  the  princes  and  great  men  of  this 
epoch  esteemed  most,  and  wished  to  retain  beyond  the 
grave ;  they  make  known  to  us  what  was  then  considered 
the  highest  motive  for  existence,  namely,  material  pros- 
perity, or  rather  a  measure  of  enjoyment  of  the  good 
things  of  life,  combined  with  a  benevolent  desire  for  the 
welfare  of  all  men. 

At  that  time  there  reigned  no  dread  of  the  pains  of  hell 
or  of  judgment  after  death.  The  life  to  come  was  scarcely 
anything  else  than  a  reproduction  of  life  on  earth,  and  no 
one  seems  to  have  thought  much  about  any  retribution 
after  death.  There  is  to  be  found,  indeed,  the  formula 
destined  ultimately  to  be  joined,  without  alteration,  to  the 
name  of  the  dead  (like  our  "  the  late,"  or  the  Fr.  feu  and 
bienheureux)  ma&cheru,  which  signifies  "  exercising  autho- 
rity "  or  "  speaking  truth  by  the  word,"  in  particular,  by 
the  magical  word.1     But  as  yet  no  idea  of  justification  or 


1  Champollion  and  others  follow-     tified  by  the  word."     Devéria  (Re- 
ing  him  have  translated  this,  "jus-     cueil  Vieweg.,  i.  1,  10),  G.  Maspéïo 


i4o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

of  judgment  is  attached  to  these  phrases,  as  was  once 
believed.  The  custom  of  sepulchral  stelse  originated  in 
this  period.  On  these  Anubis  gives  place  to  Osiris,  along 
with  whom  numerous  other  gods  are  invoked. 

(in  the  German  translation  of   his  have   given    a    new    translation,    to 

Histoire   Ancienne  des   peuples  de  which    in    the    main    I    incline   to 

l'Orient,  p.  601),  and  Pietschmann,  adhere, 
the  translator  of  the  work  (ibidem), 


(     Ui     ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RELIGION   UNDER  THE  NEW   KINGDOM. 

Long  centuries  of  oppression  separate  the  Middle  Kingdom 
from  the  New.  Between  them  comes  the  rule  of  the  so-called 
Hyksös,  or  Shepherd  Kings.   The  period  of  their  supremacy 
is  one  of  the  most  obscure  in  Egyptian  history.   The  cause 
that  impelled  them  to  overrun  the  valley  of  the  Nile  in  vast 
hordes  can  only  be  guessed  at.     It  seems  natural  to  think 
that  their  immigration  was  occasioned  by  some  movement 
among  the  peoples  of  the  middle  and  west  of  Asia.     Fur- 
ther than  the  violent  usurpation  and  the  rough  rule  that 
followed  upon  it  we  know  hardly  anything.     The  only 
thing  told  by  later  historians  is,  that  in  the  reign  of  a 
certain  otherwise  unknown  king,  Timaos  or  Amuntimaos, 
an  eastern  people,  of  what  race  cannot  easily  be  deter- 
mined,1 made  an  inroad  on  Egypt,  became  masters  of  the 
lower  portion  of  the  country,  and  made  the  whole  kingdom 
tributary  to  them.     The  barbarians  ravaged  and  destroyed 
everything,  monuments,  temples,  towns,  but  in  the  end 
they  adopted  the  Egyptian  civilisation,  and  replaced  in 
new-built  temples  the  monuments  of  the  ancient  kings, 
which  at  first  they  had  destroyed.     They  now,  however, 

i  Josephus  calls  them  Phoenicians  the  words  so  much.      Only  Bnon  or 

or  Arabians.     Chabas— in  Les  Pas-  Banon,  and  Yannas   or  Annas    es- 

teursen  Egy,  Amst,  i868,p.  27,  a  pecially   the    latter,    have   a    slight 

masterly  treatise,  of  which  I  have  resemblance    to     common     Semitic 

hatefully  made  use-is  of  opinion  names.     The  known  proper   names 

that  their  names  are  not  Syro-Ara-  of  the  Cheta  or  Hethites  are  total  y 

maic(i.e,  Semitic).     On  this  point  different.     That    this  people   could 

it  is  very  difficult  to  come  to  a  deci-  have  been,  as  Brugsch  thinks,  As- 

sion,  as  the  Greeks  have  mangled  Syrians,  is  impossible. 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

inserted  on  them  the  names  and  cartouches  of  the  con- 
querors. The  foreigners  became,  in  fact,  Egyptian  kings. 
In  the  judgment  of  antiquaries,  the  artistic  merit  of  the 
monuments  erected  by  them,  especially  of  those  at  Tanis, 
is  greater  than  that  of  the  works  of  the  contemporary, 
subject  Theban  dynasty.  They  had  at  their  side  a 
council  of  Egyptian  scribes  and  wise  men,  and  one  of 
the  latest  shepherd-kings,  Set-aa-pehti-nubti,1  even  in- 
stituted a  new  chronology,  which  had  not  fallen  into 
disuse  at  Tanis  four  centuries  later.  Another,  the  well- 
known  Apepi  (Apophis),  probably  one  of  his  predeces- 
sors, adopted  an  Egyptian  worship  and  built  magni- 
ficent temples.  But  while,  on  the  one  hand,  civilisation 
seems  to  have  tamed  the  rude  might  of  the  oppressor,  the 
spirit  of  the  subject-people  would  seem  to  have  mean- 
while revived.  Warlike  kings  in  the  Thebaid,  as  yet 
properly  only  princes  of  secondary  rank,  girt  themselves 
for  a  war  of  independence.  These  were  the  Ta's  or 
Easkenen's  (warlike  sun),  namely,  Ta  the  great,  the  very 
great,  and  the  very  victorious,  followed  by  Ahmes  (Amosis), 
who  succeeded  in  driving  the  foreigners  out  of  their  last 
stronghold,  and  on  this  victory  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
new  dynasty,  the  eighteenth.2 

Belonging  to  the  time  of  Apepi,  whose  reign  is  contem- 
porary with  that  of  Easkenen  Ta  I.,  we  possess  a  frag- 
mentary, but,  for  the  history  of  religion,  very  important 
account  in  Papyrus  Sallier  I.  Erom  this  it  appears  that 
Apepi  did  not  reside,  as,  according  to  Manetho,  the  first 
Hyksos  were  in  the  habit  of  doing,  at  Memphis,  nor  at 
Tanis,  where  monuments  of  theirs  have  been  discovered, 
but  farther  to  the  east  at  Avaris  (Pelusium,  Hebr.,  Zo'ar, 
Eg.,  Zar  or  T'ar,  formerly  inaccurately  supposed  to  be 

1  Mariette  reads  this  name  Nubti-         2    Chabas,    op.   cit.,    pp.    33,    39. 

Suti.     According  to  him  he  is  the  Lenormant,  in  his  Hist.  Ancienne  de 

last  of  the  Shepherd   Kings  Asseth.  l'Orient,   has  devoted  a  chapter  to 

In  the  opinion  of  others  he  is  to  be  this  period,  but  he  makes  wild  work 

regarded  as   the  very  first,    Sa'ites,  in  the   strangest  way  with  the  few 

which  is,  however,  extremely  impro-  historical  data, 
bable. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  143 

Tanis  or  San).  His  residence  there  was  only  occasional, 
for  he  is  still  master  of  Heliopolis,  and  it  is  expressly  men- 
tioned that  he  received  tribute,  not  only  from  the  north, 
but  from  the  whole  country.  "  He  made,"  so  the  papyrus 
informs  us,  "  Sutech  (Set)  his  divine  master,  and  served 
none  of  the  gods  that  are  in  the  whole  country.  He 
erected  a  temple  to  him,  of  excellent  workmanship,  for  the 
centuries."  In  this  temple  he  caused  festivals  to  be  cele- 
brated, offerings  to  be  brought  daily,  erected  in  it  his  royal 
statue,  and  adorned  the  approach  to  the  sanctuary  with 
rows  of  sphinxes  confronting  each  other.  This  testimony 
is  confirmed  by  the  remains  that  have  been  found  at  Tanis, 
statues,  sphinxes,  executed  with  talent,  but  in  a  foreign  un- 
egyptian  style.  Set  was  the  ancient  god  of  Lower  Egypt, 
whose  peculiar  unpleasing  form  has  been  already  met  with 
in  the  time  of  the  kings  of  the  first  Memphitic  dynasty. 
His  name  was  slightly  modified  by  a  particle  being  affixed, 
which  is  sometimes  used  in  Egyptian,  and  is  very  common 
in  Ethiopian.  This  was  done  apparently  to  make  the 
pronunciation  easier  for  the  foreign  intruders,  for  exactly 
the  same  deity  was  meant.  The  reasons  why  Apepi 
selected  this  god  in  particular,  when  he  threw  over  his 
ancestral  religion  in  favour  of  that  of  Egypt,  cannot  have 
been  that  he  found  Set  established  at  that  time  as  the  god 
of  Tanis,  for  the  gods  worshipped  there  up  to  that  time 
were  those  of  Heliopolis  and  Memphis,  and,  most  of  all, 
Ptah.1  The  only  possible  reason  for  his  procedure  is, 
that  his  own  religion  may  have  been  a  kind  of  Moloch 
worship,  to  which  the  worship  of  Set  corresponded  most 
nearly. 

Nor  did  Apepi  confine  himself  to  taking  this  step.     He 

1  See  E.  De  Rouge,  Rev.  Arch.,  Hyksos)    adopted    the    religion    of 

1864,    i.    130.      Comp.    Chabas,    op.  Egypt,  forcibly  intruding  their  god 

cit.     It  is  utterly  incomprehensible  Set  or  Sutech  into  its  pantheon ;  and 

to  me  how  any  one,  in  opposition  to  he  ended  by  remaining  fixed  there, 

the  indubitable  testimony  of  the  Pa-  losing  only  the  highest  rank  which 

pyrus  and  the  certainty  that  Set  is  a  they   gave  him."      Tot    terba,     tot 

genuine  Egyptian  ancient  god,  can  errores. 
say,    like   Lenormant,    "  They    (the 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

went  further  still ;  lie  proposed  to  Sekenen-Ea  Ta  I., 
prince  of  Thebes,  who  seems  by  this  time  to  have  in  a 
great  degree  secured  the  independence  of  the  south,  that 
an  agreement  should  be  made  between  them.  The  con- 
tents  of  this  agreement  are  not  known  to  us,  but  one  of 
the  conditions  it  sought  to  impose  was,  that  from  that  time 
forth  two  gods  only  should  be  worshipped  in  Egypt,  Su- 
tech,  namely,  and  Amun-Ea,  the  god  of  Thebes.  As  far 
as  can  be  made  out  in  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
papyrus,  this  proposition  was  indignantly  rejected  by  the 
Theban  prince,  and  the  struggle,  destined  to  end  in 
the  emancipation  of  the  whole  country,  was  resumed 
with  unabated  fury.  Every  circumstance  gives  us  the 
impression  that  Apepi  foresaw  the  approaching  end  of  his 
supremacy,  and  wished  to  retain  what  was  still  in  his  pos- 
session. Up  to  this  time  the  overbearing  Orientals  appear 
to  have  remained  faithful  to  their  own  religion,  which 
seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  rude  sun-fire  worship,  and 
out  of  religious  hatred  and  zeal  for  their  faith,  they  de- 
stroyed the  temples  and  images  of  the  Egyptian  gods. 
Apepi  next  made  two  important  concessions.  In  order  to 
retain  the  north  he  offered  homage  to  the  god  of  Lower 
Egypt ;  and,  that  he  might  arrest  the  course  of  his  ill  for- 
tune in  the  south,  he  declared  that  he  was  prepared  to 
revere  Amun-Ea  likewise,  but  he  expressly  limits  himself 
to  these — he  will  have  besides  them  no  other  gods.  He 
cannot  prevail  upon  himself  to  adopt  the  manifold  and 
materialistic  polytheism  of  the  Egyptians.  It  was  too 
late,  however.  The  true  Egyptians  felt  their  power,  and 
easily  divined  the  object  of  the  foreign  tyrant.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  time  of  his  second  successor,  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  now  confined  to  Avaris  alone, 
came  to  an  end,  and  throughout  the  country  all  the  Egyp- 
tian gods  again  received  their  worship. 

This  history  is  characteristic  of  the  great  race  to  the 
two  branches  of  which  the  Egyptians  and  the  Menti  or 
Shepherds  respectively  belong.     Eor  this  race  religion  is 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         145 

the  one  thing  of  consequence,  the  centre  around  which  all 
else  revolves.  Every  war  is  a  religious  war.  And  in  this 
case  the  strugde  is  not  so  much  one  between  two  different 
religions,  for  we  see  how  the  nomad  prince  is  prepared  to 
adopt  Egyptian  gods  ;  it  is  rather  a  struggle  between  two 
principles,  between  that  of  the  rich,  varied,  polytheistic 
religion  of  the  sons  of  Ham,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  the  simple,  severe  nomad  religion  of  the  sons  of 
Sheni.  It  is  the  ancient  strife  between  Cain,  the  tiller  of 
the  ground,  and  Abel,  the  keeper  of  sheep — a  struggle  des- 
tined to  be  repeated  at  a  later  period,  though  on  Egyptian 
ground,  with  the  same  result. 

Meanwhile,  though  the  Shepherds  were  indeed  expelled, 
the  worship  of  Set  was  not  given  up  either  at  Tanis  or 
elsewhere  in  Egypt.  Even  in  the  time  of  Eamses  II.,  so 
long  as  four  hundred  years  after  the  last  of  the  Hyksös, 
the  governor  of  Zar  (Avaris)  is  called  Seti,  chief  prophet 
of  Sutech,  and  head  of  the  prophets  of  all  gods,  a  proof 
that  Sutech  was  no  foreign  deity,  but  a  genuine  Egyptian 
one,  adopted  by  the  barbarians.1 

A  period  in  which  a  people's  whole  strength  is  put  forth 
in  order  to  achieve  freedom  and  independence,  is  usually 
succeeded  by  a  period  of  prosperity.  This  fact,  in  which 
we  may  see  the  operation  of  a  fixed  law,  may  be  very 
naturally  accounted  for.  A  struggle  of  this  kind  cannot 
fail  to  bring  into  play  all  the  latent  powers  of  a  nation, 
and  gives  it  extraordinary  energy.  When  the  object  which 
all  its  forces  had  been  gathered  up  to  attain  is  reached, 
these  forces  naturally  direct  themselves  into  other  chan- 
nels, towards  peaceful  works,  art,  or  science.  The  slum- 
bering energy  having  once  been  fairly  aroused  seeks  out  a 
way  to  spend  itself.  Consequently  everything  to  which 
the  mind  can  bend  it  flourishes  and  develops  beneath  the 
shelter  of  peace  at  home.     This  was  what  now  happened 

1  E.  de  Rouge,  Rev.  Arch.,  1 864,     and   again,    in   reply   to    that,    De 
i.  138  e«  «eg.,  and,  in  opposition  to  him,     Rouge,  op.  cit.,  1865,  p.  346. 
Mariette,  op.  cit.,  1865,  i.  169  et  seq.t 


146         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

in  Egypt.  The  struggle  for  nationality  carried  on  with 
the  foreign  tyrants  is  followed  by  the  most  brilliant  period 
of  Egyptian  history,  the  glory  of  which  is  manifest  even 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  Nor  did  the 
troubles  which  supervened  at  the  close  of  that  dynasty  put 
an  end  to  this  time  of  prosperity,  for  under  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  it  immediately  revived,  and  rose  to  its  fullest 
height,  and  even  in  its  decline,  during  the  twentieth 
dynasty,  it  still  continued  to  be  rich  and  imposing.  In- 
dustry and  trade  diffused  prosperity  throughout  the  thickly 
peopled  land.  Agriculture  was  pursued  with  especial  care 
as  a  sacred  task,  and  the  works  which  in  the  Nile  valley 
are  so  indispensable  to  its  success,  were  kept  up  or  im- 
proved. Ancient  towns  grew  in  extent  and  increased  in 
magnificence  and  wealth  of  monuments,  while  new  towns 
were  founded.  The  Egyptian  even  ventured  out  upon  the 
sea,  the  unclean  sea,  as  he  always  considered  it.  Eleets 
were  sent  out  to  Arabia  to  return  with  rich  freights.  The 
wars  with  northern  peoples  were  partly  carried  on  by  sea, 
and  while  it  is  the  case  that  the  Phoenicians  contributed  a 
chief  share  to  the  formation  of  these  Egyptian  navies, 
there  is  no  doubt  they  were  to  a  considerable  extent 
manned  by  Egyptians.  In  these  wars  Egypt  was  almost 
invariably  victorious,  and  her  warrior  kings  extended  the 
empire  far  into  the  heart  of  Asia.  In  this  period,  too,  art, 
rising  from  its  long  slumber,  brought  into  being  the  noblest 
and  most  beautiful  creations,  though,  it  is  true,  it  had  lost 
its  early  boldness  of  character,  as  well  as  much  of  its 
former  grandeur  and  impressiveness.  Literature  was  pur- 
sued with  especial  eagerness  by  numerous  scribes.  Tales 
and  proverbs,  poems  and  poeans  of  victory,  as  well  as 
hymns  of  religion,  medical  and  magical  papyri  belonging 
to  this  period,  have  been  preserved  in  comparatively  large 
numbers.  Nor  did  religious  life  remain  torpid.  We  notice 
in  this  province  the  most  remarkable  progress.  About 
this  time  the  naturalistic  standpoint  is  not  entirely  forsaken, 
the  material  husks  are  still  very  far  from  being  quite  cast 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.        147 

away;  but  the  Egyptian  spirit  becomes  more  and  more 
conscious  of  power  to  rise  to  the  purest  conception  of  deity 
as  an  invisible  spiritual  being,  and  of  ability  to  perceive 
under  the  innumerable  forms  the  one  and  only  God  whose 
names  merely  were  many  and  diverse. 

Under  the  rule  of  the  Theban  royal  families— for  the 
three  dynasties  that  reigned  in  the  prosperous  clays  of  the 
New  Kingdom  were  all  of  Theban  origin — Amun,  the  god 
of  Thebes,  is  of  course  the  principal  god  of  Egypt.  He 
thus  came  to  be,  more  than  any  other  deity,  the  expression 
of  the  highest  that  it  is  possible  to  conceive  concerning 
the  divine  being.  He  still  continues  to  be  the  very  same 
god  who,  in  the  time  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  was  reve- 
renced under  various  names  as  the  god  of  fertility.  He  is 
still  named  "  divine  head,  who  hast  power  to  bring  thyself 
forth  again,"  and  "  husband  of  his  mother."  His  temple 
at  Wady-Halfa,  erected  by  Usertasen  I.  (twelfth  dynasty), 
in  which  he  was  worshipped  as  Chem-Kamut-f,ChemAmun, 
and  as  Amun-ra,  was  adorned  by  Amenophis  II.  (eighteenth 
dynasty),  and  later  by  Eamses  I.  and  Seti  Merneptah 
(nineteenth  dynasty).  At  agricultural  festivals,  and  even 
at  the  king's  coronation,  the  ithyfallic  form  of  Amun  was 
carried  round  in  procession,  and  the  god  was  glorified  in 
this  character.  Even  the  ancient  idea  of  durability  was 
still  attributed  to  him.  It  still  remained  a  favourite  play 
of  words,  "  Amun  durable  {men)  in  all  things." 

As  god  of  fertility  he  bears  also,  like  Chnum,  one  or 
more  rams'  heads,1  and  he  is  even  expressly  called  the 
oreat  ram.2     The  sphinxes  with  rams'  heads,  so  common 


1  A  very  common  representation  a  sun's  disk,  crowned  with  a  ureus 

of  Amun  is  that  of  a  seated  human  adder,  is  upon  the  curved  sword  that 

being  with  four  rams'  heads  on  one  Amun   holds   in  his  right   hand  (a 

neck,  and  worshipped  by  the  four  or  sculpture  on  the  triumphal  arch  of 

eight  dog-headed  apes,  the  Hermo-  Ramses  III.  at  Medinet-Abu).     In 

politan   gods.      See    Chabas,    Pap.  the    so-called   treasure-house   he   is 

Mag.,  Harris,  p.  90  et  seq.     In  the  represented   as   a  ram  lying   down 

tomb  of  Seti  I.,  discovered  by  Bel-  with  the  sun's  disk  between  its  horns, 

zoni,  he  occurs  as  a  ram's  head  in  a  2  Inscription  in  Brugsch,   Reise- 

sun's  disk.    The  same  ram's  head  in  berichte,   p.    161.     Wilkinson   con- 


148  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

at  Thebes,  are  distinctly  in  connection  with  his  worship. 
At  the  well-known  oasis  of  Amnion  likewise,  into  which 
his  Egyptian  worship  must  have  been  introduced  by  a 
Theban  colony,  he  was  worshipped  under  this  form. 

A  sun-god  he  always  was,  as  is  shown  by  his  identity 
with  Horos,  Munt,  and  Chem,  and  a  sun-god  he  continued 
to  be.  In  poems  dating  from  the  time  of  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  mention  is  made  of  how  he  sends  forth  rays,  and 
how  by  them  he  encircles  the  earth  with  brightness  until 
he  withdraws  himself  behind  the  western  hills,  and  of 
"  his  boat  that  steers  past  the  hidden  mountain."  Nay 
more,  we  find  express  mention  of  "  the  light  of  his  disk." 
He  is  named  fighter  against  the  darkness,  and  conqueror 
of  it.  It  is  a  less  materialistic  conception,  and  shows  a 
transition  to  the  supernatural,  when,  in  that  parallelism 
which  the  Egyptians  alone  among  the  peoples  have  in 
common  with  the  Hebrews,  who  no  doubt  adopted  it  from 
them,  we  read  of  "  Amun,  who  hides  himself  in  the  apple 
of  his  eye,  soul  that  shines  in  his  holy  eye;"  or  when 
reference  is  made  to  his  holy  transformations  of  shape, 
which  are  known  to  none,  and  he  is  called  the  mystery  of 
mysteries,  hidden  in  the  bosom  of  the  heavenly  ocean. 
The  very  same  expression  is,  however,  elsewhere  applied 
just  in  the  same  way  to  the  sun-god  Ea.1 

But  a  still  greater  step  in  advance  was  taken.  This  is 
shown  by  the  name  Amun-ra,  which  came  into  vogue 
during  the  supremacy  of  the  foreign  kings,  and  which 
was  sometimes  expanded  to  Amun-ra-Harmachu.  Erom 
this  it  appears  that  men  were  beginning  to  see  in  Amun 
something  more  than  the  sun-god.  Amun-ra  is,  in  fact,  a 
pleonasm,  because  Amun  as  w^ell  as  Ea  was  a  sun-god. 

siders  the  accounts  of  the  ancients  a  sparrow-hawk,  and  a  sword  with  a 

about  the  criocephalous  Amun  to  be  sparrow-hawk's   head  on  it   in   his 

a  confusion  with  Chnum  ;  the  monu-  hand.      That    is    his   own    original 

ments,  however,  contradict  that  as-  form,  not  exclusively  as  Amun-ra. 

sertion.  Where,  too,  he  occurs,  as  he  mostly 

1  As  sun-god  he  frequently  has,  as  always    does,    with    human    head, 

on  the  triumphal  arch  of   Ramses  crowned  by  a  high  double  feather, 

III.,  already  referred  to,  the  head  of  he  bears  this  latter  name. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  f 49 

But  now  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  pleonasm.  Amun  was 
now,  and  his  name  also  permits  the  signification,  although 
it  cannot  have  been  the  original  one,  regarded  as  the 
hidden  {Amun)  deity,  "  of  whom  even  Amun  is  a  form," 
in  the  same  way  as  the  sun's  disk.  In  this  character  he 
is  called  "  the  highest  power  with  the  mysterious  forms," 
"  the  mysterious  soul  that  is  himself  creator  of  his  own 
dread  might ; "  nay,  they  even  went  so  far  as  to  call  him 
the  spirit,  more  spiritual  than  the  gods,  with  whose  plans 
the  world  is  begun,  the  only,  the  infinite  one.1 

Let  us  now  try  to  account  for  this  exaltation  of  Amun- 
ra,  by  virtue  of  which  he  towers  above  all  the  more 
ancient  gods  of  Egypt,  and  combines  in  himself  all  of 
great  and  glorious  that  the  Egyptian  had  personified 
in  his  various  gods.  The  close  relationship  subsisting 
between  the  three  principal  gods  of  the  Thebaid,  Amun 
of  Thebes,  Munt  of  Hermonthis,  and  Chem  of  Koptos, 
was,  as  will  be  recollected,  pointed  out  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  Now  these  three  gods  are  accurate  represen- 
tations of  the  three  kinds  of  higher  gods  worshipped  in 
different  parts  of  Egypt:  from  a  mythological  point  of 
view  they  are  respectively  the  god  of  fire  or  of  the  wind, 
the  god  of  the  visible  or  living  sun,  and  the  god  of  the 
sun  invisible  or  dead:  from  a  theological  point  of  view 
again  they  are  the  creator,  operative  and  hidden  from 
the  sight  of  men  in  the  uppermost  sphere  of  the  heavens ; 
manifesting  himself  in  the  air;  and  hidden  in  the  bosom 
of  the  earth  or  in  the  under  world.  Besides  Shu  of 
Heliopolis  and  others,  Chnum  belongs  very  specially  to 
the  first  category.  Now,  Amun,  the  god  of  the  town  of 
Thebes,  whose  name  must  have  signified  originally,  "  He 
who  fertilises,"  was  very  frequently  represented  under 
the  form  proper  to  Chnum,  that  is,  with  a  ram's  head, 
the  symbol  of  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  sometimes  even 
with  four  rams'  heads,  emblems  of  the  four  spirits  of  the 
heavens,  of  the  air,  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  under  world ; 

1  See  Chabas,  Pap.  Mag.,  Harris,  sec.  vi. 


i5o         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

that  is  to  say,  of  the  light,  of  the  wind,  of  fire,  and 
of  the  Nile.  Amun  has  thus  a  signification  entirely 
identical  with  that  attributed  to  Chnum  of  Mendes  in 
Lower  Egypt.  The  fact  of  Arnun-ra  assuming  the  same 
form  as  Chnum  is  not  therefore  a  mere  coincidence,  for 
there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  he  was  conceived  of  as 
being  the  creative  soul  of  the  world.  Not  only  is  it  said 
of  him  as  of  Shu,  that  the  winds  proceed  from  his  mouth, 
breath  from  his  nostrils,  but  moreover  in  the  book  of  the 
breathings  of  life  (Shaï  an  Sinsin1),  that  used  to  be 
deposited  in  the  tombs  of  the  priests  and  priestesses  of 
Amun,  he  like  Shu  gives  the  breath  of  life  to  the  dead, 
and  the  soul  lives  in  him  as  the  body  does  in  Osiris ; 
and  in  a  picture  at  Karnak  (Thebes),  Osiris  is  seen  on  the 
funeral  litter  no  longer  as  a  mummy  but  as  a  young  man, 
and  therefore  just  at  the  moment  when  he  is  about  to 
resume  life;  above  him  floats  Amun-generator  in  the  form 
of  a  bird,  the  usual  symbol  of  the  soul  and  of  new  life. 
The  inscription  accompanying  this  picture  is  conceived 
in  the  following  terms,  "  Amun-ra,  the  venerable  soul 
of  Osiris,  lies  upon  his  body  in  the  place  of  the  resur- 
rection." 2 

The  principal  representative  of  the  gods  of  the  second 
category  is  Ea-Harmachis  of  Heliopolis,  between  whom 
and  Munt  of  Hermonthis,  sun-god  and  warrior,  there  is 
really  no  difference.  Now,  Ea  was  combined  with  Amun 
under  the  name  of  Amun-ra,  and  even  this  last  was 
named  "  Lord  of  An  "  (Heliopolis),  and  mention  is  made 
of  his  revered  appearing  in  the  house  Benben  (a  mystical 
place  localised  in  a  sanctuary  of  Heliopolis).  In  this 
character,  Amun-ra  bears,  like  Ea-Harmachis,  a  sparrow- 

1  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  iv.  that  the  ram's  head  was  not  bor- 
121.  rowed  by  Chnum,  but  that  the  sym- 

2  It  is  true  that  the  head  of  bol  was  properly  his  own  from  the 
Amun's  ram  always  carries  horns  beginning.  There  is  no  doubt  about 
of  a  different  form  from  those  of  the  primitive  meaning  of  the  symbol, 
Chnum,  a  fact  to  which  Lepsius  and  hence  none  about  the  original 
called  attention  ("Zeitschrift,"  1877,  signification  of  the  two  deities. 

pp.    8,    11);    but   this   only   proves 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         151 

hawk's  head.  The  principal  gods  of  the  third  category 
are  above  all  Atum  or  Turn  and  Osiris,  and  we  find 
Amun-ra  identified  with  both,  which  has  come  about 
through  his  form  as  Chem,  being  that  of  a  hidden  god,  the 
same  as  Osiris.  The  hidden  gods  have  in  general  a  human 
head,  with  which  Amun-ra  likewise  is  represented. 

It  would  be  quite  a  mistake  to  look  upon  this  as  an 
amalgamation  of  gods,  carried  through  without  rule,  and 
on  no  principle,  a  thing  which  has  sometimes  happened 
in  epochs  of  transition.  This  was  effected  in  a  way  dis- 
tinctly systematic,  and  was  the  fruit  of  earnest  and  pro- 
found speculation,  which  has  likewise  found  expression  in 
the  cultus.  We  see,  in  fact,  that  one  bark  only  is  repre- 
sented in  connection  with  each  of  the  other  gods,  while 
Amun-ra  has  three  quite  distinct  from  each  other;  the 
largest,  that  of  the  mysterious  soul,  is  adorned  with  rams' 
heads,  the  next,  that  of  the  manifested  deity,  has  sparrow- 
hawk  heads  ;  the  last,  that  of  the  hidden  god  in  the  under- 
world, has  human  heads.1 

Amun-ra  of  the  New  Kingdom,  as  worshipped  in  the 
time  of  the  Theban  dynasties  after  the  re-establishment  of 
independence,  is  thus  in  fact  the  highest  hidden  deity  who 
reveals  himself  in  the  sun.  He  is  the  embodiment  of  the 
loftiest  and  purest  religious  conception  ever  reached  by 
the  Egyptians.  In  him  we  see  the  conception  of  deity  at 
the  moment  of  its  transition  from  the  natural  to  the  super- 
natural. The  power  to  cast  away  entirely  the  materialistic 
elements,  or  to  change  the  nature  being  into  a  pure  tran- 
scendant  god,  was  one  not  possessed  by  the  Egyptians. 
This  decisive  step  was  not  taken  till  much  later,  and  by 
the  Hebrews,  who  also  must  have  had  at  first  a  dualistic 
idea  of  the  deity.  Traces  of  this  may  be  seen  in  the 
case  under  our  notice  and  likewise  in  the  later  Hebrew 
doctrine;  and  their  conception  of  God,  as  we  know  it 
from  the  writings  of  the  eighth  century,  is  a  development 
from  such  a  dualism.     In  the  Theban  theology  of  the 

1  See  Mariette,  Abydos,  Tom.  i.  260  et  31  °  tableau,  pp.  63  and  71. 


152         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

New  Kingdom  all  the  germs  of  monotheism  are  present, 
but  in  Egypt  they  remain  stationary  in  the  first  stage  of 
their  development,  a  result  which  is  due  mainly  to  politi- 
cal considerations.  The  people  were  not  yet  ripe  for  the 
adoption  of  the  results  of  priestly  speculation,  and  the 
reverence  felt  for  the  innumerable  existing  forms  of  reli- 
gion, being  also  a  primary  condition  of  the  unity  and  con- 
tinued existence  of  the  kingdom,  would  not  suffer  the 
worship  of  one  God  to  supplant  their  varied  polytheism. 

This  ambiguity  is  the  key  to  the  phenomenon  that  ap- 
pears on  the  monuments  of  this  period,  where  undeniably 
mythological  representations  are  found  side  by  side  with 
utterances  that  would  not  be  misplaced  in  the  psalms  and 
prophecies  of  Israel.  In  the  famous  poem  of  Pentaiira, 
in  which  the  victory  of  Eamses  II.  over  the  Cheta  is  cele- 
brated, the  king  speaks  of  Amun-ra  just  as  the  kings  of 
Judah  speak  of  Jahveh.  "  Shouldest  thou  be  my  father, 
O  Amun  ? "  he  asks ;  "  and,  behold  !  should  a  father  forget 
his  son  ?  Have  I  then  put  my  trust  in  my  own  thoughts  ? 
Have  I  not  walked  according  to  the  word  of  thy  mouth  ? 
Has  thy  mouth  not  directed  my  marches,  and  have  thy 
counsels  not  guided  me  ?  Amun  will  bring  low  them  that 
know  not  God." x  The  king  next  sums  up  the  proofs  of 
homage  and  worship  paid  by  him  to  his  divine  protector, 
and  goes  on  to  say,  "  Shame  be  unto  them  that  resist  thy 
counsels  ;  blessed  is  he  who  comprehends  thee,  O  Amun  !" 
And  when,  forsaken  by  all,  he  finds  himself  surrounded 
by  the  enemy,  he  boasts  that  Amun  was  more  to  him  than 
millions  of  his  men  of  war.  "  The  snares  of  men  are 
nought,  Amun  will  overcome  them  ! "  "  Amun  would  be 
no  god  if  he  did  not  make  his  face  glorious  in  the  sight  of 
the  countless  legions  of  the  enemy."  One  of  the  succes- 
sors of  this  king,  Eamses  III.,  testifies  in  the  same  spirit 
(inscription  at  Medinet-abu),  "  Amun-ra  was  on  my  right 
hand  as  well  as  on  my  left,  his  spirit  inspired  my  resolves. 

1  Comp.  W.  Pleyte's  translation  of  this  hymn  in  the  Theol.  Tijds.,  1869, 
p.  221  et  seq. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  153 

Amun-ra  has  himself  prepared  the  destruction  of  my 
enemies,  and  has  given  into  my  hand  the  whole  world." 
He,  too,  in  his  campaigns  followed  the  commands  of 
Amun's  mouth  alone.  Amun  is  likewise  "  the  ruler  of  the 
circle  of  the  gods,  the  absolute  lord,  the  revered  divine 
father."  At  the  same  time,  however,  the  other  sun-gods 
also,  such  as  Ea,  Turn,  Harmachis,  are  invoked,  and  men- 
tion is  made  of  Munt,  of  the  divine  sparrow-hawk,  and  even 
of  Baal. 

Another  proof  that  AmuD,  notwithstanding  the  lofty 
character  attributed  to  him,  was  never  entirely  disengaged 
from  primitive  nature  conceptions  is,  that  he  continued  to 
be  coupled  with  goddesses  as  wives.  And  just  as  we  have 
seen  Amun  combine  in  himself  even  the  very  greatest 
gods,  so  we  find  some  of  the  very  greatest  goddesses  con- 
joined with  him.  Three  especially  are  mentioned  at 
Thebes.  They,  it  is  true,  are,  properly  speaking,  only  one 
and  the  same  divinity  presented  under  different  aspects, 
the  mother  goddess  in  three  forms,  corresponding  to  the 
three  forms  of  Amun  that  have  just  been  explained.  To 
the  supreme  creator  in  the  form  of  Chnum,  Amun  par 
excellence,  the  ancient  god  of  the  town  of  Thebes,  corre- 
sponds Amunt,  a  name  which  is  simply  the  feminine  of 
Amun.  To  the  visible  god  of  the  sun,  Amun-ra,  corre- 
sponds the  goddess  of  Thebes,  Mat  or  Mut,  the  "  mother," 
sometimes  united  with  Neith  of  Saïs  in  the  form  Mat-Net, 
and  more  commonly,  the  Hathor  of  the  Thebaicl,  the  queen 
of  Thebes,  "  the  friend  of  him  who  is  named  with  his  mys- 
terious name."  Lastly,  to  the  hidden  god  of  the  sun  in 
the  under  world  corresponds  a  form  of  Isis,  goddess  of  the 
nocturnal  heavens,  represented  in  the  repulsive  shape  of  a 
gravid  female  hippopotamus,  and  called  at  Thebes  Apé. 
In  the  actual  worship,  however,  the  place  of  most  import- 
ance was  taken  by  the  second  form,  the  type  of  the  queen 
mother,  the  princess  who  gave  to  Egypt  its  future  king. 

The  most  erroneous  idea  that  could  possibly  be  enter- 
tained about  the  religion  of  Egypt  would  be  to  represent  it 


154         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

as  stationary,  and  fossilised  into  unchanging  conceptions. 
There  was  in  reality  progress,  but  by  the  process  of  super- 
imposing new  and  purer  ideas  on  the  old  foundation, 
without  ever  sacrificing  the  least  particle  of  the  beliefs  of 
the  past. 

The  triad  of  Amun  and  Mut  was  completed  by  Chonsu, 
the  son  assigned  to  them.  Like  them  he,  too,  lost  the  marks 
of  his  original  character  as  nature-god,  so  completely,  that 
for  long  it  was  a  matter  of  uncertainty  whether  he  was  a 
moon-  or  a  sun-god.  But  this  uncertainty  exists  no  longer. 
He  was  a  moon-god.  His  father  Amun-ra  having  com- 
bined in  himself  all  the  sun-gods,  nothing  was  left  for  the 
son  but  to  rule  over  the  moon,  and,  in  fact,  he  bears  on  his 
head  the  lunar  disk,  and,  like  Thot,  he  has  in  his  hand  a 
palm-branch,  the  symbol  of  time  and  of  eternity.  There 
was  a  temple  at  Thebes  dedicated  to  Chonsu-Thot,  and  it 
is  only  in  the  character  of  a  moon-god  that  he  could  have 
borne  the  name  of  measurer  of  time  (heseb  ha).  He  bears, 
moreover,  the  attributes  of  royalty,  like  Osiris,  who  is  also 
sometimes  represented  as  a  moon-god.  The  fact  that 
Chonsu  has  been  discovered  represented  with  a  sparrow- 
hawk's  head  is  not  proof  sufficient  that  he  was  also  a  sun- 
god,  for  gods  of  very  diverse  character  have  this  symbol  in 
common.  He  is  certainly  the  revealer  of  the  will  of  the 
hidden  god  of  night.  Very  great  power  was  attributed  to 
him ;  his  oracles  were  consulted,  he  himself  watched  over 
the  execution  of  his  commands.  One  of  his  surnames  is 
Pa-ar-secher,  "  he  who  does  what  pleases  him ; "  and  in  the 
temple  of  Chonsu- Thot  this  may  be  read,  "  Whatever  comes 
out  of  his  mouth  comes  to  pass,  and  if  he  speaks,  what  he 
has  ordained  happens."  He  was  resorted  to  for  the  cure 
of  all  diseases,  or  for  the  exorcism  of  all  the  evil  spirits 
who  inflict  them. 

The  request  addressed  to  Eamses  XII.  by  one  of  his  sons- 
in-law,  the  king  of  Buchten  in  Asia,  that  the  statue  of  Chon- 
su might  be  sent  to  him  to  cure  his  daughter  of  a  malady 
which  the  gods  and  priests  of  the  country  had  attempted 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         155 

in  vain  to  remove,  shows  what  Chonsu' s  reputation  in  this 
respect  was,  even  though  the  story  itself  is  probably 
fictitious.  Eepresented  in  the  form  of  a  mummy  he  is 
called  Chonsu,  the  good  repose  (Neferhotep),  a  surname 
which  indicates  a  god  who  originally  reigned  over  the 
souls  of  the  dead  or  the  shades,  as  the  moon  reigns  over 
the  stars,  but  to  whom  afterwards  a  political  signification 
was  given.  At  least,  in  the  time  of  the  twentieth  dynasty, 
in  calling  him  Neferhotep,  people  thought  of  the  repose 
of  the  country,  and  Chonsu  was  regarded  as  the  most 
powerful  enemy  and  destroyer  of  the  rebels. 

There  is  frequent  mention  made  of  him,  and  he  was 
already  worshipped  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  but  it 
was  not  till  the  time  of  Ramses  III.  that  he  rose  to  the 
height  of  his  power  as  Lord  of  the  Thebaid.  This  king 
erected  for  him  a  special  temple,  where  he  was  worshipped 
under  his  three  principal  forms.  It  was  then,  too,  that 
his  fame  spread  to  foreign  parts. 

Throughout  this  period  Amun-ra  was,  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  the  principal  god  of  Egypt,  although  homage 
neither  was  exclusively  paid  to  him,  nor  was  he  wor- 
shipped in  common  with  one  rival  only  in  the  north  in 
the  way  suggested  to  Raskenen  Ta  by  Apepi ;  for  not 
only  did  he  receive  the  highest  honours  as  god  of  the  king 
and  of  the  court,  but  the  other  principal  gods  of  the  king- 
dom were,  moreover,  reformed  after  his  pattern.  This  is 
a  truly  remarkable  phenomenon,  though  it  is  not  an 
isolated  one,  being  met  with  elsewhere ;  in  India,  for 
example.  All  the  chief  sun-gods  and  gods  of  light  were 
now  represented  and  glorified  in  the  same  manner  as 
Amun ;  they  all  became,  in  the  eyes  of  their  worshippers, 
the  highest  deity,  and  then,  like  the  chief  god  of  Thebes, 
frequently  had  Ea  added  to  their  names;  for  instance, 
Chnum-ra,  Ptah-ra,  Sebak-ra,  and  even  Munt-ra.  "  Thy 
personality,"  so  it  is  said  in  a  hymn  in  praise  of  Shu 
belonging  to  this  period,  "  is  intermingled  with  that  of 
Ea."     In  the  same  hymn  Shu  is  raised  to  the  position  of 


156         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

leader  of  the  gods,  and  called,  exactly  in  the  same  way  as 
Osiris  and  Ptah,  the  true  lord  of  the  double  righteousness. 
He  is  now  called  likewise  the  god  who  formed  his  father 
and  the  husband  of  his  mother,  the  well-known  mytho- 
logical mode  of  expressing  that  the  highest  god  is  un- 
created. He  is  invoked  by  all  the  gods,  and  he  is  twice 
as  great  as  they.  This  is  expressed  still  more  strongly  in 
a  hymn  in  honour  of  Ptah,  which  has  been  translated 
by  Pleyte,  a  Dutch  scholar.  This  hymn  could  be  used 
equally  well  in  the  worship  of  Amun-ra  as  in  that  of 
Ptah,  who  also  is  called  in  it  "  the  great  hidden  one 
whose  image  is  not  known,"  and  he  assumes  sovereignty 
over  the  gods.  Creator,  life-giver,  orderer  of  the  portions 
of  the  earth  and  lord  of  righteousnesses,  the  eternal  and 
exalted  one  unto  whom  there  is  none  like,  the  living 
spirit  who  causes  his  spiritual  being  to  go  forth,  lord  of 
the  years,  who  at  his  pleasure  bestows  life ;  he  is,  in  fact, 
in  no  respect  inferior  to  Amun-ra.  The  same  thing  could 
be  shown  in  the  case  of  other  deities  also.  This  inevitably 
led  to  the  inference  that  all  the  gods  did  not  differ  essen- 
tially from  each  other,  and  were  merely  revelations,  mani- 
festations of  the  one  great  god.  Accordingly,  in  this 
period  the  gods  were  confounded  with  each  other,  amal- 
gamated and  intermixed;  the  names  and  attributes  of  one 
were  ascribed  to  another,  and  all  were  moulded  after  the 
same  pattern.  Upon  the  sarcophagus  of  the  priest  Bek- 
en-Chonsu,  the  living  soul  of  the  heavens  is  called  Amun- 
ra-Tum-Harmachis.  In  the  Magical  Papyrus  Harris,  Shu 
is  named  like  Ptah,  young  oldest  one,  i.e.,  the  eternal 
unchangeable;1  like  Sekru  and  Osiris,  the  two-horned 
god ;  and  like  Horos-Tem,  the  god  who  drives  away  the 
crocodiles  ;  nay,  he  is  even  called  "  the  very  great  goddess." 
In  the  same  place  Amun-ra  likewise  has  a  name  applied 
to  him  which  is  usually  borne  by  Ptah,  namely,  Tatanen, 
or  Totunen.2     In  reality  there  was  no  longer  any  distinc- 

1  Records  of  the  Past,  viii.  5.  there   is   even    found  an   image  of 

2  In  Wilkinson,  Pantheon,  p.  36,     Hathor  as  a  sparrow-hawk,  with  the 


'RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  157 

tion  made.     The  principal  gods  became  amalgamated,  the 
minor  ones  sank  to  the   position  of   servants,  or  were 
regarded  as   forms  in  which  the  gods  were  manifested. 
Theocrasies  of  this  kind  conld   not  have  been  formed 
nnconscionsly.    Men  knew  perfectly  that  they  were  taking 
a  great  step  in  advance  of  their  fathers.     The  absence  of 
progress  in  Egyptian  theology  is  more  apparent  than  real, 
because  the  old  forms  were  so  carefully  maintained  that 
nothing  appeared  to  change,  but,  in  reality,  an  altogether 
new  spirit  had  entered  into  the  forms.     The  priest  Bek- 
en-Chonsu,  just   referred   to,   speaks   repeatedly  on   his 
sarcophagus  of  "  the  development  of  the  doctrine  of  his 
gods."1    This  the  priests  actually  accomplished.    Already, 
under  the  dynasties  of  which  we  speak,  their  highest  god 
was  truly  what  Iamblichus  described   him,  "  one,  self- 
existing,  eternal,  creator  of  all  that  is."     Egyptologists 
deserve  much  credit  for  having  brought  this  clearly  out, 
though  we  cannot  agree  with  some  of  them  in  regarding 
it  as  the  surviving  remnant  of  an  earlier  revelation,  which 
had  continued  to  keep  its  place  in  the  midst  of  the  devia- 
tions of  priests  and  people.2     We  can  see  in  it  only  the 
result  of  a  protracted  development.     This  advance  Egypt 
owed  to  her  scribes.    They  did  not,  as  is  generally  supposed, 
keep  their  new  ideas  carefully  concealed,  so  as  to  leave 
to  the  multitude  nothing  but  coarse  superstitions.     The 
contrary  is  evident  from  a  number  of  inscriptions  which 
can  be  read  by  anybody,  and  from  books  which  any  one 
can  buy.     Whence  came  it,  then,  that  the  new  was,  as 
has  just  been  noticed,  merely  put  alongside  of  the  old, 
which  it  had  not  power  to  supplant,  and  that  a  mono- 
theism so  plainly  expressed  did  not  effect  a  reform  of  the 

legend,  "  Hathor  under  the  robe  (or  '  Devéria,  in  the  Rev.  Arch.,  1S61, 

the  disguise)  of  Ra."    De  Rouge  has  vi.,  102  et  seq. 

directed  attention  to  this  in  the  Rev.  2  Thus    De    Rouge,    Exposé    de 

Arch.,   1867,  p.   129,   note    2.     The  l'Etat  actuel  des  études  Egyptiennes. 

representation  may  possibly  be  more  (Recueil  de  Rapports,  l'Egypte  et 

recent,  but  it  cannot  be  more  ancient  l'Orient),  p.  58. 
than  the  Theban  dynasties   of  the 
New  Kingdom. 


158         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

worship,  did  not  even,  so  far  as  is  known  to  us,  bring 
about  in  it  the  slightest  alteration  ? 

The  cause  of  this  I  find  in  policy.  If  we  except  the 
Chinese,  the  Egyptian  nation  was  more  than  any  other 
faithful  to  tradition.  If  a  place,  a  house,  a  district  was 
sacred  to  any  particular  form  of  the  deity,  no  alteration, 
at  least  externally,  could  occur.  The  name  of  the  god 
and  the  forms  of  his  worship  must  of  necessity  remain  the 
same.  Fallen  temples  might  be  restored  or  wholly  rebuilt 
from  the  foundation,  but  they  were  always  dedicated  to 
the  gods  in  whose  honour  they  had  originally  been  erected. 

This  peculiarity  of  the  Egyptian  nation,  to  the  existence 
of  which  all  the  monuments  testify,  was  one  which  the 
kings  were  obliged  to  respect,  if  they  would  not  endanger 
their  authority.  The  example  of  Amenophis  IY.  gives  us 
an  idea  of  how  perilous  it  was  to  attempt  alterations  in  re- 
ligion. Pollers,  consequently,  who  were  prudent,  carefully 
upheld  all  the  peculiar  sanctuaries  and  reverenced  their 
usages.  In  regard  to  forms  of  worship  they  exercised  the 
completest  toleration,  and  allowed  each  place,  each  family, 
perfect  freedom  to  choose  and  maintain  their  own  deity 
and  mode  of  worship.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  kings 
standing  at  the  head  of  the  priesthood  managed  to  main- 
tain an  essential  unity  such  as  has  seldom  been  found  in 
conjunction  with  diversity  so  great.  The  worshippers  of 
the  various  gods  were  not  so  tolerant,  and  showed  often 
undisguised  mutual  detestation  of  each  other,  and  of  each 
other's  cods.  But  the  princes  who  were  wise,  kept  the 
peace  between  the  different  districts  precisely  by  this 
entire  freedom  of  worship  granted  to  each  in  his  own 
territory,  and  by  the  protection  which  they  extended  to 
every  local  worship. 

The  religious  policy  of  the  kings  of  the  New  Kingdom 
was  thus  a  policy  of  balance  and  of  equal  rights  for  all. 
The  four  chief  gods  of  the  different  divisions  of  the 
kingdom,  Ea,  the  god  of  Heliopolis,  or  properly  the 
national  god  par  excellence — the  god  of  the  whole  country  ; 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  159 

Arnun,  the  god  of  Thebes  and  patron  of  the  royal  house  ; 
Ptah,  the  honoured  god  of  the  former  capital,  Memphis  ; 
and  almost  always  also  Sutech  or  Set,  the  god  of  the 
north  since  the  days  of  king  Apepi,  worshipped  principally 
at  Tanis ;  these  four  were  constantly  united  in  the  worship 
of  the  kings,  and  were  honoured  equally  with  gifts  and 
temples.  Sanctuaries  were  erected  in  Nubia  for  the  three 
first-named  deities  so  early  as  the  time  of  Thutmes  III.  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and  these  were  afterwards  em- 
bellished by  Eamses  II.  Even  in  Syria,  the  inscriptions 
that  were  graven  there  in  remembrance  of  his  victorious 
campaigns  record  the  names  of  these  three  gods.  Nor 
did  he  and  his  father  and  their  successors  as  well  neglect 
to  give  a  place  to  Sutech  in  the  catalogue  of  these  highest 
deities,  even  though  this  god  was  at  certain  places,  as  at 
Dendera  and  Edfu,  regarded  as  identical  with  the  evil  one. 
Even  in  the  king's  names,  the  Eameside  kings  sought  to 
maintain  this  balance ;  when  the  father  was  named  Seti, 
beloved  by  Ptah  (Seti  Merenptah),  the  son  was  named 
child  of  Ea,  friend  of  Amun  (Bamcssu  Meriamun).  If  in 
that  of  the  king  the  name  of  one  of  these  chief  gods  was 
omitted,  he  was  careful  to  bestow  it  on  one  of  his  sons. 
Even  the  high  priests  of  Amun,  when  they  had  driven  the 
kings  of  the  twentieth  dynasty  from  the  throne,  remained 
at  first  faithful  to  this  traditional  policy. 

Thebes  would  thus  appear  to  have  been  turned  into  a 
kind  of  pantheon ;  at  least,  there  was  there  a  visible 
token  of  the  unity  of  the  kingdom,  a  sanctuary  dedicated 
to  Ptah  annexed  to  the  temple  of  Amun-ra.  This  latter 
became  a  sort  of  religious  metropolis,* — a  centre  where, 
around  the  great  god-ruler  of  them  all,  the  principal  gods 
of  the  country  had  their  appropriate  places.  In  regard  to 
this,  however,  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter  somewhat  more 
into  detail. 

The  prince  who  was  the  first  to  introduce  this  religious 
policy,  and  who  gave  it  his  powerful  support  was,  Thutmes 
III.      His   predecessors,  Amenophis  I.  and  Thutmes  I., 


i6o         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

had  already  erected  a  stately  edifice  in  place  of  the 
remains  of  the  temple  of  Amun,  founded  by  Usertasen  I. 
The  sanctuary  of  this  new  temple  was  surrounded  by  a 
number  of  chambers  and  a  wide  fore-court  with  side 
towers  (pylons)  and  obelisks.  Thutmes  II.  proceeded  to 
enlarge  this  temple,  adding  among  other  things  a  hall 
supported  by  fifty-six  pillars.  When  he  introduced  Ptah 
worship  into  Thebes  for  the  first  time,  and  founded 
in  that  city  a  special  sanctuary  for  this  god,  he  besides 
imported  this  worship  into  the  temple  of  Amun.  Here 
Ptah  was  even  called  Lord  of  the  Thebaid. 

At  Thebes,  too,  he  was  distinguished  by  his  green  colour, 
by  the  blue  beard  and  diadem  of  Amun,  whose  colour 
was  blue ;  and  at  Thebes  as  at  Memphis  he  was  called 
"  Lord  of  the  Ell  and  of  righteousness."  Also,  although 
his  usual  spouse  Sechet  occurs  in  the  sanctuary,  Hathor  is 
assigned  to  him  as  wife ;  he  retains,  however,  his  son 
Imhotep,  "the  eldest  child  of  Ptah,  the  beneficent  god 
who  comes  when  men  call  upon  him  who  gives  life  to 
men."  Thutmes  III.  likewise  gave  a  place  in  the  temple 
of  Amun  to  Anubis  and  Thot.  This  king  showed  great 
zeal  in  the  work  of  restoring  or  building  up  holy  places 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  His  rock-temple  in  Nubia 
has  been  alluded  to  already.  In  like  manner  he  founded 
sanctuaries  for  Chnum  at  Elephantine  (Abu)  and  Esneh, 
for  Sebak  at  Ombos,  for  Suben  at  Eileithyia,  and  for 
Munt  at  Hermonthis;  and  he  rebuilt  or  adorned  the 
temples  of  Ea  at  Heliopolis,  and  of  Ptah  at  Memphis. 

To  judge  from  the  monuments,  it  was  long  before 
Thutmes  IV.  showed  any  zeal  like  this.  He  seems  to 
have  been  specially  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Ea-Har- 
machis ;  it  was  he  at  least  who  bestowed  great  care  on 
the  sphinx  at  Gizeh.  A  stela  between  the  paws  of  that 
symbolical  animal  contains  the  following  address  to  the 
king : — "  The  majesty  of  this  beautiful  god  speaks  by  his 
own  mouth,  as  a  father  speaks  to  his  child,  saying,  Look 
to  me,  let  thine  eye  rest  on  me,  my  son  Thutmes  !     I,  thy 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         161 

father,  Harmachu-Chepra-Ka-Tum,  I  give  you  the  king- 
dom." His  successor,  however,  Amenophis  III.,  again 
erected  monuments  for  various  gods,  and  in  particular 
enhanced  the  glory  of  the  Theban  worship  of  Amun. 

Amenophis  IV.,  who  succeeded  him,  acted  in  a  totally 
different  way,  for  not  only  did  he  abandon  the  policy  of 
his  predecessors,  he  even  attempted  to  bring  about  an 
entire  reformation,  or  rather,  for  so  it  must  be  called,  a 
complete  revolution  in  religion  by  the  substitution  of  the 
god  Aten,  the  sun's  disk,  in  the  place  of  Amun-ra.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  ever  brought  to  light 
by  antiquarian  research. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  with  certainty  the  causes  that 
provoked  this  religious  revolution.  Was  Aten  a  foreign 
god  introduced  into  Egypt  ?  That  has  been  conjectured, 
and  from  the  similarity  of  name,  it  has  been  attempted  to 
identify  him  with  the  Phoenician  Adonis.  Confirmation 
of  this  hypothesis  has  even,  it  is  thought,  been  found  in 
a  story  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Misaphris,  or  Hatasu,  sister 
of  Thutmes  III.,  who  reigned  some  years  before  Ameno- 
phis IV.  This  queen  sent  a  trading  expedition  to  the 
country  of  the  Pun  or  Puns ;  and  the  ambassadors  of  this 
people  conveyed  to  Egypt  in  the  Egyptian  ships  asserted 
that,  equally  with  the  queen,  they  adored  Hathor,  who  is 
Aten.  Was,  then,  the  worship  of  this  deity  borrowed 
from  them  ?  Mariette  has  called  attention  also  to  the 
names  of  the  mother  and  grandmother  of  Amenophis  IV., 
Taya,  daughter  of  Yuaa  and  Tuaa,  which  assuredly  are 
not  Egyptian  names,  and  belong,  in  his  opinion,  to  the 
Semitic  branch  of  languages.  But,  in  the  first  place,  it  is 
to  be  noticed,  that  Aten  is  a  masculine  deity,  that  the 
name  is  derived  from  a  purely  Egyptian  root,  and  that 
mention  is  made  of  him  in  Egypt  from  time  to  time 
down  to  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies.  In  the  second  place, 
Adonis  is  not  exactly  the  god  of  the  sun's  disk ;  and 
lastly,  the  Puns,  who,  because  of  the  analogy  of  name 

L 


i62  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

have,  till  now,  been  confounded  with  the  Pceni  (Punians) 
or  Phoenicians,  were  probably  a  people  of  African  race. 

The  fact,  however,  that  the  mother  of  Amenophis  IV., 
a  devoted  worshipper  of  Aten-ra,  as  the  monuments  show, 
was  not  of  pure  Egyptian  extraction,  but  had  very  likely 
African  blood  in  her  veins,  and  that  the  principal  officers 
of  Amenophis  IV.  offer  testimony  in  the  inscriptions  on 
their  tombs — constructed  while  they  were  still  in  life — 
to  their  fidelity  to  the  beliefs,  to  the  worship,  and  to  the 
"  piety  handed  down  by  the  old  queen ; "  all  this  makes 
the  supposition  legitimate  that  even  in  her  reign  attempts 
were  made,  either  on  the  part  of  herself  or  on  that  of  her 
family,  to  change  the  hitherto  received  religion. 

Before  his  accession  Amenophis  IV.  had  been  a  priest 
of  Ea.  Whether  that  may  have  led  him  to  give  supre- 
macy to  the  worship  of  this  god  in  the  form  of  Aten,  the 
glittering  sun's  disk,  or  whether  it  was  owing  to  the 
influence  of  his  mother,  Ti  or  Taya,  just  referred  to,  I 
cannot  tell ;  but,  in  any  case,  the  fact  remains  that  at  this 
period  the  king  forced  upon  the  country  the  exclusive 
worship  of  this  deity  as  a  masculine  being.  Nor  did  he 
do  this  work  imperfectly.  Everywhere  he  rooted  out  the 
worship  of  other  gods,  especially  of  Amun,  causing  their 
names  to  be  chiselled  out  and  the  monuments  dedicated 
to  them  to  be  destroyed.  The  names  of  Ea  and  of  Osiris 
alone  were  respected.1  Out  of  hatred  for  Amun,  after 
whom  he  was  named,  he  changed  his  name,  Amenhotep, 
into  Chu-n-aten,  "  glitter  of  the  sun's  disk,"  and  to  the 
name  of  his  wife,  Nefer-Juti,  he  added  besides  that  of 
Nefru-aten.  He  even  purified  the  cartouches  containing 
the  kings'  names.  Where  the  name  of  Amun  occurred  in 
combination  with  theirs  it  was  erased,  and  the  reigning 
appellation  of  the  king  substituted,  which  is  thus  con- 

1  Not  of  Ea  alone,  as  Brugsch,  in  sculptured.    In  it  the  name  of  Amun 

his  Histoire,  p.  119,  asserts,  but  also  is  erased  throughout,  but  the  names 

of   Osiris   and   his   circle    of    gods,  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horos  have  been 

This  appears  from  a  stela,  on  which  left.     See  Chabas,  Rev.  Arch.,  1S57, 

a  song  in  praise  of  Osiris  remains  p.  67. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         163 

stantly  found  written  twice,  the  one  which  was  added  side 
by  side  with  that  originally  engraved.  In  Thebes,  the 
town  of  Amun,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  live ;  it  seems 
to  have  been  too  polluted  for  him.  He  accordingly  chose 
to  forsake  it,  and  set  up  a  new  residence  in  Middle  Egypt 
at  Tell-el-amarna.  The  remains  of  it  are  still  in  existence, 
and  show  that  it  must  have  been  of  vast  extent  and  mag- 
nificence. Traces  have  also  been  discovered  of  the  great 
temple  of  the  sun  which  he  built  there,  with  two  fore- 
courts and  three  pairs  of  pylons.  In  the  cliffs  near  by 
are  still  to  be  seen  the  tombs  of  his  courtiers,  who,  as 
their  nature  is,  were  humbly  subservient  to  the  royal 
caprice,  and  bowed  low  with  the  king  in  adoration  of 
"the  living  sun's  disk,"  although  apparently,  if  he  had 
been  a  servant  of  Amun,  they  would  have  offered  their 
homage  with  not  a  whit  less  devotedness  to  that  deity. 
There  was  no  lack  of  servility  among  them,  as  is  proved 
by  the  slavish  attitude  they  always  take  on  the  monu- 
ments towards  the  king  and  his  family,  a  servility  unusual 
even  for  Egyptians,  certainly  in  no  w^ay  infected  by  the 
taint  of  republican  ideas.  Could  it  be  from  an  excess 
of  flattery  that  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  represented 
just  as  ugly,  nay,  as  horrible,  as  his  majesty  himself,  with 
his  fat  paunch  and  idiotic  look  ?  The  repulsiveness  of 
the  productions  of  the  sculptor's  art  that  have  been  dis- 
covered in  Chu-n-aten's  residence  is  at  any  rate  very 
remarkable.  It  is  scarcely  possible  in  this  case  to  suppose 
want  of  skill  in  the  artists,  though  it  might  be  that 
practised  sculptors  refused  to  lend  themselves  to  the 
sacrilegious  work  of  the  reformer  of  religion.  We  are 
almost  obliged  to  believe  that  it  was  designedly  produced, 
though  what  motive  there  could  be  for  so  strange  a  whim 
cannot  now  be  even  conjectured.  These  defective  works 
of  the  sculptor  and  painter  are  in  strong  contrast  with  the 
poetical  productions  of  the  worshippers  of  Aten.  Aten-ra 
himself  was  represented  as  a  sun's  disk  with  a  ureus  and 
four  suspended  rings,  whence  shot  rays  terminating  in 


1 64  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

hands  ;  one  of  these  hands  is  joined  with  the  right  hand 
of  the  king,   another  carries  the  emblem  of  life  to  his 
mouth.1     All  kinds  of  offerings  were  presented  to  him, 
flowers  being  the  most  frequent  of  these.     A  chief  part  of 
the  service  consisted  in  song,  for  which  certain  male  and 
female   singers  were  appointed,  and  the  songs  that  they 
raised  were  distinguished  by  an  elevation  and  poetic  beauty 
which  one  would  expect  least  of  all  in  this  peculiar  court.2 
In  so  far  as  we  can  judge  of  the  reformation  of  Chu-n- 
aten,  on  which  we  hope  newer  discoveries  will  throw  more 
light,  its  aim  seems  distinctly  to  have  been  to  introduce  a 
kind  of  monotheism.     In  this  way  alone  is  it  possible  to 
find  an  explanation  of  his  persecution  of  Amun-worship 
and  the  other   forms  of  religion,   sun-worship  alone  ex- 
cepted.    This  movement,  happening  at  so  early  a  period, 
is  in  the  highest  degree  remarkable.      It  bore  no  fruit 
however.      The    very   next   successors   of  the   reformer, 
though  related  to  his  family,   being  his  sons-in-law,  for 
he  left  no  son,  forsook  the  way  in  which  he  had  walked, 
and  once  more  offered  homage  to  Amun.     This,  however, 
was  not  enough  in  the  eyes  of  the  orthodox.     Every  trace 
of  Chu-n-aten's  heresy,  the  very  memory  of  this  king  and 
of  the  rulers  who  owed  their  sovereignty  to  him,  must  be 
blotted  out.   This  was  the  work  of  King  Horemheb  (Horos), 
who,  after  the   third   successor  to  the   reformer,  gained 
possession  of  the  supreme  authority.     He  appears  to  have 
been  of  pure  royal  extraction.      He  caused   the  monu- 
ments erected  by  Chu-n-aten  at  Thebes  to  be  defaced, 
and  made  use   of   the  stones  for  other  buildings.      The 
capital  in  Middle  Egypt  was  razed  to  the  ground.     Out 
of  the  monuments  at  Memphis  bearing  the  name  of  Chu- 
n-aten,  he  even  made  a  pavement ;  and  thus  this  heresy 
was  literally  trodden  under  foot.3     And  not  only  was  the 

1  See,  as  one  example,  the  plate  in  Disk  Worshippers  of  Memphis  "  in 
Wilkinson,  M.  &  C,  Sup., PI.  XXX.  The     Transactions     of     the     Royal 

2  Brugsch,  Histoire,  p.  Ii8  tt  seq.  Society  of  Literature,  II.  Ser.,  vol. 

3  That  is  seen  from  the  accounts  ix.  part  ii.  p.   197  tt  seq.      Up    to 
of   Sir  Charles  Nicholson   "  On  the  this  time  no  monuments  of  the  re- 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         165 

Theban  triad  now  restored  to  a  position  of  honour — that 
had  been  done  at  once  by  Amen-tut-anch,  the  immediate 
successor  of  Chu-n-aten — by  Horemheb  it  was  revered 
with  passionate  devotion.  Accordingly,  Amun,  in  his 
temple,  built  up  out  of  the  wreck  of  the  defaced  sun- 
temple,  promises  him  a  rich  blessing.  Along  with  Amun, 
Thot,  god  of  the  scribes,  to  whom  his  exaltation  seems  due, 
was  worshipped.1  As  of  old,  Horemheb  caused  himself 
to  be  depicted  standing  between  the  two  patron  gods  of 
the  north  and  south  of  the  empire,  Set  and  Horos.  The 
restoration  was  thus  in  full  progress.  Most  of  Horemheb's 
monuments  are  therefore  of  a  religious  nature,  and  he 
appears  to  have  been  what  Manetho  assures  us  he  was,  a 
kind  of  fanatic.  Nevertheless,  at  his  death  the  govern- 
ment passed  to  another  dynasty. 

The  first  of  the  Eamesids  ascended  the  throne ;  his 
name  and  the  gods  to  whose  worship  he  was  most  de- 
voted, lead  us  to  suppose  that  he  belonged  to  the  north, 
and  that,  favoured  by  the  disturbances  that  must  have 
marked  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Horemheb,  he  rose  to  be 
king. 

This  conjecture  is  supported  by  the  circumstance 
that  his  grandson  Eamses  II.  went  afterwards  to  Mem- 
phis to  pay  homage  to  his  forefathers,  and  identified  him- 
self with  Sutech,  the  god  of  Lower  Egypt.2  He,  it  is  true, 
founded  a  temple  in  honour   of  Horos  in  his  ithyfallic 

former  had  been  found  so  far  to  the  Aten,  another  and  a  very  different 

north.     They  prove  that  the  whole  thing  to  try  to  make  his  worship  ex- 

Pharaonic   empire   was    subject    to  clusively  supreme ;    which  last  at- 

him.     From  the  circumstance  that  tempt  certainly  gave  rise  to  the  per- 

worship  of  the  deified  sun's  disk  oc-  secution  raised  in  later  times  against 

curs  as  early  as  Amenophis  IV., and  Chu-n-aten. 

that  likewise  Seti  I.  is  represented  at  x  Proof  of  this  is  afforded  by  the 

El  Hammamat  under  that  emblem,  temple  at   Djebel-addeh   in  Nubia. 

Nicholson   makes  out  that  the  hos-  Amun    and   Horos   there   take   the 

tility  to  Chu-n-aten  proceeded  more  first    place    beside     Thot.       Anka, 

from  dynastic  than  from   religious  the  goddess  of  the  district,  nurses 

causes.     His  proofs-  do  not  seem  to  the  king.     Champollion,  Monumens, 

me  sufficient.     I  myself  called  atten-  PI.  II.,  1,  2,  3. 

tion   to  Aten-worship  under  Misa-  2  See  the  inscription  in  Brugsch, 

phris;  but  it  is  one  thing  to  worship  Histoire,  pp.  150,  154. 


1 66         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

form,  but  the  gods  principally  occurring  in  his  tomb  are 
Turn  of  Heliopolis,  as  the  "  great  god,  the  master  of  heaven, 
the  first  upon  earth,"  and  Neith,  as  "  the  great  mother, 
the  mistress  of  heaven  and  the  queen  of  deities,"  both 
these  being  gods  belonging  to  the  north. 

After  his  brief  reign  began  the  famous  government  of 
Seti  I.  (Eamaa-men  Merenptah  Seti),  who  appears  to  have 
been  not  his  son  but  his  grandson.  His  name,  too,  is 
purely  northern,  Ea,  Ptah,  and  Set  being  gods  of  Lower 
Egypt.  He  accordingly  seems  to  have  found  it  necessary 
to  strengthen  his  authority  by  nominating  his  son  Eamses, 
who,  as  child  of  a  royal  princess,  was  of  pure  blood,  imme- 
diately on  his  birth  to  be  co-regent.1  As  a  wise  states- 
man, he  also  followed  the  religious  policy  of  Thutmes  III. 
It  has  been  conjectured  that  he  belonged  to  the  family 
of  the  Hyksós,  a  supposition  based  on  the  Syro-aramaic 
profile  of  himself  and  his  son,  and  an  inscription  at  Tanis.2 
If  such  was  the  case,  he  certainly  did  all  in  his  power  to 
do  away  with  the  offence  which  such  a  descent  would 
give  to  the  Egyptians.  He  paid  zealous  homage  to  Amun 
of  Thebes,  whose  temple  (at  Karnak)  he  enriched  with  its 
indescribably  wonderful  hall  unequalled  in  the  whole  world. 
It  was  164  feet  long  by  320  feet  broad,  and  supported 
by  134  immense  pillars.  In  another  quarter  of  Thebes 
(at  Qurna)  he  caused  a  sepulchral  temple  to  be  erected 
in  honour  of  his  predecessor  Eamses  I.,  which,  like  the 
others,  was  sacred  to  Amun.  Even  in  the  temple  erected 
or  restored  by  him  in  Abydos,  the  ancient  town  of  Osiris, 
he  offers  homage  to  Amun.  The  phrases  in  which  this  is 
done  are  characteristic  of  the  way  in  which  the  various 
forms  of  religion  prevailing  at  this  period  were  con- 
founded. The  relief  represents  Seti  offering  the  collar 
usech  to  "  his  father  Amun ; "  the  text  that  follows  does 

1  This  hj^pothesis  is  admirably  de-  2  This    conjecture,   made   by  De 

fended  by  G.  Maspero  in  his  Essai  Rouge,    confuted  by  Mariette,    has 

sur    l'lnscription     Dedicatoire     du  much  to  recommend  it,  but  it   still 

Temple  d'Abydos  et  la  Jeunesse  de  remains   uncertain.       See  the  pas- 

Sésostris,  Paris,  1867,  p.  68  et  seq.  sages  quoted,  p.  174,  note  I. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.        [167 

not  however  say  one  word  about  this  god,  but  seems  to 
have  been  adopted  from  a  Heliopolitan  writing  concern- 
ing the  duties  of  kings  towards  the  gods.  It  is  as  fol- 
lows : — "  Be  gracious,  god  Turn  !  be  gracious,  god  Ea  !  thou 
the  creator  who  rejoicest  as  often  as  thou  risest  in  the 
heavens  and  as  often  as  thou  sendest  thy  rays  out  on  the 
obelisks  which  are  on  the  temple  Oer-to  at  Heliopolis." 1 

The  erection  of  this  Osiris  temple  at  Abydos  by  Seti 
and  his  son  Eamses  testifies  to  a  revival  of  this  very  ancient 
Egyptian  worship  during  the  reign  and  under  the  patron- 
age of  these  princes.  This  worship  was,  however,  ap- 
parently not  a  simple  restoration  of  the  ancient  system. 
The  god  to  whom  the  new  sanctuary  was  dedicated  was 
not  the  old  Osiris,  but  a  combination  of  the  three  divine 
forms,  Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.  "  Come  to  me,"  so  it  is  said  on 
an  inscription,  "  Ptah-sekru-asiri,  who  art  enthroned  in 
Eamen-ma  (the  name  of  the  temple),  divine  mystery  oi 
deities,  and  I  come  to  thee,  whose  invocations  are  the 
divine  mystery  of  deities."  The  three  cognate  divine 
forms  that  in  the  time  of  the  first  dynasties  are  met  with 
separately,  are  here  combined  into  one.  This  testifies  to  a 
modification  in  the  original  Osirian  theology,  which  may 
well,  however,  be  of  earlier  date  than  the  reign  of  Seti. 
Besides,  this  temple,  just  like  the  temple  of  Amun  at 
Thebes,  was  meant  to  be  a  metropolis,  a  pantheon.  We 
have  already  said  that  Amun  also  was  worshipped  in  it. 
Besides  this  reference  to  the  god  of  the  under  world  in  his 
triune  form,  mention  is  also  made  of  "  the  circle  of  the 
gods  united  with  him  there,"  which  was  divided  into  the 
great  and  the  little  circle  of  the  deities  of  the  north  and 
south,  and  the  sun-god  Harmachu  was  particularly  men- 
tioned. Numerous  offerings,  consisting  of  four-footed 
beasts  and  of  birds,  were  ordained  by  Seti  and  Eamses  to 
be  presented  there.  The  texts  tell  of  hundreds,  thousands, 
hundreds  of  thousands,  millions  of  such  offerings;  and 
the  mode  of  expression  used  proves  that  the  Egyptians,  in 

1  Mariette,  Rev.  Arch.,  iS6o,  ii.  24. 


i6S         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

common  with  the  peoples  most  nearly  akin  to  them  and 
with  the  ancient  Aryan  peoples  as  well,  regarded  these 
offerings  as  being  food  for  the  gods.1  In  connection  with 
this  renewal  of  Osiris-worship,  we  find  that  nnder  the 
nineteenth  dynasty  it  was  again  regarded  as  a  great 
privilege  and  as  a  pledge  of  future  blessedness  to  be 
buried  at  that  Abydos  where  the  god  of  the  under  world 
reigned,  and  at  which  the  mythic  topography  of  the  king- 
dom of  the  dead  was  expressed  in  the  nomenclature  of  the 
surrounding  places  and  districts.2 

While  Amun  had  a  place  in  the  temple  of  Ptah-Sokar- 
Osiris  at  Abydos,  Ptah  and  Osiris  were  in  their  turn 
worshipped  by  Seti  in  the  town  of  Amun.  The  so-called 
Speos  Artemidos,  the  rock  temple  of  the  northern  goddess 
Sechet  at  Beni-hassan  in  Middle  Egypt,  likewise  owed  its 
origin  to  Seti.  This  king  accordingly  neglected  no  one 
form  of  his  country's  religion  that  was  of  any  conse- 
quence, and  he  thereby  proves  himself  to  have  been  as 
able  a  ruler  as  he  was  a  fortunate  general ;  and  it  would 
seem  as  if,  by  his  worship  of  local  gods  in  districts  to 
which  they  had  not  originally  belonged,  he  wished  to  offer 
a  proof  that  the  local  gods  were  now  gods  of  the  Egyptian 
nation,  and  worthy  of  the  homage  of  all. 

To  the  gods  of  Egypt  there  were  even  added  in  this' 
period  foreign  deities  with  whom  the  Egyptians  had 
become  acquainted  in  the  brilliant  and  victorious  cam- 
paigns of  Seti  I.  and  his  successors.  Baal,  Astarte,  Anata, 
Kedesh,  Keshpu,3  Canaanite  and  Syrian  gods,  were  now 
worshipped  and  had  their  priesthoods  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile  ;  although,  by  the  mode  of  their  representation,  they 
may  still  in  all  cases  be  distinguished  clearly  from  the 
Egyptian  gods.4 

1  Mariette,  Rev.  Arch.,  1866,  i.  p.  the  true  reading,  Reshpu.  It  denotes 
76.  the  Phoenician  god  of  thunder  who 

2  Lepsius  Zeitschrift,  1868,  p.  2.  occurs  often  on  Cyprian  monuments. 

3  This  name  used  to  be  read  See  De  Vogüé,  Mélanges  d'Archéo- 
Ranpu.     First,  Birch,  and  indepen-  logie  Oriëntale,  p.  76  et  seq. 

dent  of  him  De  Vogüé,  discovered         4  Chabas    throws  doubt    on   the 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         169 

Eamses  II.,  Meriamun,  the  beloved  of  Arnun,  whom  the 
Greeks  call  by  one  of  his  surnames  Sesostris,  shared,  as 
we  saw,  his  father's  throne,  and  at  his  father's  death  he 
carried  on  the  government  in  the  same  spirit.  With  the 
tale  of  his  wars  and  much-vaunted  heroic  deeds,  of  which 
the  well-known  poem  of  Pentaiira  gives  so  exaggerated 
a  description,  and  with  the  question  whether  he  really 
deserved  the  epithet  "  the  great,"  so  frequently  bestowed 
upon  him,  we  have  not  here  to  concern  ourselves.  He 
was  not  deficient  in  energy,  industry,  and  personal  courage  ; 
but  neither  did  he  lack  vanity,  which  made  him  jealous 
even  of  the  fame  of  his  predecessors,  and  caused  him  to 
put  down  their  achievements  to  his  own  account.  In 
matters  of  religion  he  carried  out  in  its  entirety  the  policy 
of  his  father  and  of  Thutmes  III.;  and,  following  their 
example,  he  even  founded  in  Nubia  four  sanctuaries  and 
four  towns  in  connection  with  them,  dedicated  to  the  four 
principal  gods,  Ea,  Amun,  Ptah,  and  Sutech,  or  rather  to 
himself  under  the  form  of  these  deities,  and  especially  of 
the  last.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  a  king,  whose  thirst 
for  fame  surpasses  that  of  all  his  not  too  modest  pre- 
decessors, and  who  seems  to  have  made  self-glorification 
the  end  of  his  life,  would  have  a  passion  for  building ; 
and  that,  in  truth,  is  the  case.  As  a  matter  of  course,  he 
extended  and  embellished  the  great  temple  of  Karnak 
(Thebes),  but  the  work  done  there  by  his  orders  is  far 
surpassed  by  what  he  did  to  extend  the  tomb-temple  of 
his  father,  Seti  I.,  and  his  grandfather,  Eamses  I.,  at 
Qurna  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  at  Thebes,  and  by 
his  erection  in  the  same  place  of  the  Eameseum,  his  own 
tomb-temple,  dedicated  to  Amun-ra.  The  ancients  ex- 
tolled especially  a  cedarwood  bark.  It  was  gilt  without, 
and  overlaid  with  silver  within,  and  was  dedicated  by  the 
king  to  the  chief  god  of  Thebes,  and,  in  fact,  the  inscrip- 

Egyptian  Bar  or  Bal  being  the  same     Theol.   Tijds.    1869,   pt.   iii.  p.  243, 
as  Baal.  Pleyte  has,  however,  rightly     note  27. 
contested  the  opinion  of  this  scholar. 


i7o  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

tions  do  speak  of  a  sacred  boat  of  this  kind  in  the  first- 
mentioned  grave-temple,  intended  to  bear  the  god  Amun 
on  some  particular  festival,  and  which  had  been  made  for 
him  by  Eamses  I.  With  not  less  laudation  do  they  tell 
of  a  colossal  image  in  the  tomb  of  Osymandias,  as  they 
called  the  Eameseum.  This  must  have  been  the  sitting 
statue  of  our  Eamses,  now  broken,  but  which  must  once, 
including  the  pedestal,  have  been  no  less  than  forty-one 
feet  high.  To  describe  this  and  other  monuments  does 
not  come  within  the  sphere  of  a  history  of  religion,  and 
is  important  in  the  history  of  art  or  of  archaeology  alone. 
We  shall  only  observe,  in  passing,  that  during  the  long 
reign  of  Eamses  Meriamun  there  was  a  great  decay 
in  art.  The  most  ancient  monuments  bearing  his  name 
are  to  be  counted  among  the  best  that  Egyptian  anti- 
quity can  show.  The  last,  on  the  other  hand,  are  of  bad 
and  careless  workmanship  and  show  a  sad  declension; 
and  the  declension  was  manifest  not  only  in  this  but  in 
everything.  The  most  oppressive  despotism  alone  could 
have  maintained  peace  in  an  empire  which  extended 
far  into  Asia,  and  was  thus  composed  of  the  most  hetero- 
geneous elements.  Nothing  but  a  power  of  this  kind 
could  raise  levies  for  such  exhausting  wars,  and  supply 
hands  for  such  innumerable  public  works.  With  this 
despotism  is  connected  the  apotheosis  of  the  king,  which 
reached  a  climax  in  the  reign  of  Eamses  II.  Not  only 
did  he,  like  the  preceding  kings,  cause  himself  to  be 
worshipped  in  temples  which  he  himself  had  erected ;  not 
only  did  he  place  himself  as  their  equal  beside  Amun  and 
Ptah,  Ea  and  Sutech1 — others,  even  in  the  time  of  the 
Old  Kingdom,  had  done  something  of  the  same  kind — but 
he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  gods,  and  called  him- 
self their  ruler  (inscription  at  Gerf-Hussên  in  Nubia).  It 
would,  however,  be  a  mistake  to  regard  this  apotheosis  as 

1  In  agreement  with  this  worship  expression  in  the    Pap.    Leid.,  380, 

of    Amun,    Ra,  Ptah,  and  Sutech,  where  this  prince  is  invoked  by  the 

in  the  Nubian  temples,  and  of  Ram-  names  of  these  deities, 
ses    II.    aloner     with   them,    is    an 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         171 

the  literal  deification  of  a  man,  and  simply  to  class  it  with, 
for  example,  the  worship  offered  to  the  Eoman  emperors. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  religious-political  fiction  of  the  same  kind 
as  the  Legitimist's  "  king  by  the  grace  of  God,"  and  the 
"  king  inviolable  "  of  the  Constitutionalist.  It  was  not  the 
man  Eamses  or  the  man  Thutmes  himself  personally ;  it 
was  his  essence  (ha),  his  heavenly  type,  to  which  the  highest 
worship  was  paid,  because  that  was  identified  with  the 
being  of  the  highest  deity.  In  the  case  of  the  Egyptians 
the  fiction  was  this  : — Horos  or  Ea,  the  chief  sun-god,  is,  in 
short,  properly  the  king  of  Egypt  (just  as  at  a  later  time 
Jahveh  was  of  Israel) ;  the  living  king  is  his  manifestation 
on  earth,  into  whom  the  fulness  of  the  god  has  passed. 
Hence  no  one  saw  any  sacrilege  in  thus  worshipping  the 
king  in  his  spiritual  being  as  actually  God,  and  it  was  a 
totally  different  thing  from  vulgar  idolatry.  It  was  a  dei- 
fication of  the  king's  office  rather  than  of  the  king,  one  of 
the  boldest  ways  of  expressing  theocracy.  Because  of  this 
— and  this  must  on  no  account  be  lost  sight  of  in  judging 
a  phenomenon  which  to  us  is  of  so  unusual  a  character — 
because  of  this  the  king  himself  regularly  stands  on  the 
monuments  as  worshipper  before  his  own  image,  and  he 
himself  offers  incense  and  other  gifts  to  his  own  divine 
being.  The  living  person,  the  worshipping  king,  was  thus 
kept  quite  distinct  from  the  being  worshipped. 

It  was  accordingly  no  wonder  that  the  king  should  be 
regarded  as  the  mediator  and  the  all-powerful  mediator 
between  men  and  the  deity.  An  example  of  this,  in  the 
highest  degree  remarkable,  is  given  by  a  stela  found  at 
Dakkeh,  in  Nubia.  What  is  related  on  this  stone  gives  us, 
besides,  a  curious  parallel  to  the  story  in  Exodus,  of  the 
supply  of  water  miraculously  obtained  for  the  children  of 
Israel  in  their  wanderings  in  the  desert.  The  case  was  as 
follows : — The  miners  in  a  district  of  Ethiopia  were  in 
great  want  of  drinking  water.  A  well  dug  by  Seti  I.,  120 
cubits  deep,  was  dry,  and  remained  so.  It  was  resolved 
to  apply  to  Eamses,  who  at  the  time  was  at  Memphis. 


172  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Help  was  expected  from  him.  "  Thou  art  as  the  sun,"  with 
this  among  other  phrases  the  king  was  approached  ;  "  for 
thou  doest  all  that  thy  heart  desirest,  it  all  comes  to  pass. 
If  during  the  night  thou  hast  formed  a  project,  it  is  realised 
as  soon  as  there  is  light  upon  the  earth.  Every  utterance 
that  proceeds  from  thy  mouth  is  as  the  words  of  the  god 
Harmachis.  The  balance  (of  righteousness)  is  in  the  midst 
of  thy  lips,  and  the  vessel  of  equipoise  is  placed  there  by 
god  Thot ;  if  thou  sayest  to  the  water,  Come  forth  from 
the  rock,  the  heavenly  water  comes  forth  to  sight  at  thy 
word,  for  thou  art  Ba,  with  the  members  of  Choper  (the 
beetle,  the  creator).  Thou  art  the  living  image  of  Ka,  and 
the  son  of  thy  father  Turn  of  Heliopolis.  The  god  Hu 
is  in  thy  mouth,  and  the  god  Sau  in  thy  heart ; 1  the  seat 
of  thy  tongue  is  the  sanctuary  of  truth.  A  god  is  settled 
upon  thy  lips,  and  thy  words  are  daily  brought  to  pass. 
What  thy  heart  has  made  goes  over  to  god  Ptah,  who 
creates  all  works."  (Ptah  is  thus  here,  in  fact,  he  who 
carries  out  into  action  the  thoughts  of  the  king  as  of  the 
highest  god.)  The  prince  of  Kush,  i.e.,  the  governor  of 
Ethiopia,  presses  the  request  of  his  subjects,  and  says 
in  addition,  "  If  thou  thyself  sayest  to  thy  father,  god 
Nile  (Hapi),  the  father  of  the  gods,  Cause  the  waters  to 
come  forth  from  the  mountain !  then  will  it  all  come  to 
pass  as  thou  hast  spoken  and  commanded ;  for  although 
we  ourselves  should  be  present,  yet  would  not  our  prayer 
be  heard ;  but  thou,  thou  art  beloved  by  thy  father  and 
all  gods  more  than  any  king  since  God  reigned"  (after 
Brugsch's  translation).  We  hardly  need  to  say  that  on 
this  occasion  the  trial  was  perfectly  successful,  for  other- 
wise the  inscription  would  not  have  existed,  and  this  suc- 
cess was,  of  course,  ascribed  to  the  miraculous  power  of 

1  Hu  is  the  god  of  taste,  and  like-  head   of  the  equipage,   and   Hu   is 

wise  also  of  sensible  feeling.     Sau,  steersman.    In  this  place  Hu  appears 

the  god  of  intelligence,    sometimes  to  be  the  god  of  eloquence.     In  the 

also  regarded  with  hearing,  sight,  and  "Book   of    the   Dead,"  xvii.    16,  a 

touch,  or  taste,  as  one  of  the  four  mystic  use  is  made  of  this.     See  De 

senses.     In  the  sun-bark,  Sau  is  the  Rouge,  Rev.  Arch.,  i860,  i.  244. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         173 

Eamses.1  The  well-turned  phrases  provoke  a  smile,  but 
we  should  err  if  we  took  them  to  be  mere  empty  formulas 
such  as  are  in  use  in  the  no  less  bombastic  style  of  govern- 
ment papers  in  the  East  in  our  own  day,  and  it  would  be 
equally  a  mistake  to  see  in  them  mere  barefaced  flattery. 
Such  phrases  expressed  the  belief  of  those  times  ;  people 
were  as  firmly  convinced  in  regard  to  the  miraculous  power 
of  the  king  as  Eoman  Catholics  are  now  in  regard  to  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope. 

Eamses  II.,  the  great  antagonist  of  the  Cheta,  who  were 
worshippers  of  Sutech,  was  himself  fervently  devoted  to 
this  god.  He  had  dedicated  a  temple  to  his  service  at 
Thebes  in  the  southern  quarter  of  the  town,  and  in  other 
places,  too,  he  seems  to  have  done  the  same.  A  priest  of 
this  sanctuary  is  called  "  The  consecrated  of  Osiris,  the 
scribe  of  the  temple  of  Sutech,  Nofremen."  Two  of  the 
king's  sons  were  named  after  this  god,  and  at  Tanis  (San), 
in  the  temple  of  Set,  he  caused  Seti,  governor  of  the  dis- 
trict of  T'sar  (Avaris,  Pelusium),  commander  of  the  army 
and  chief  prophet  of  Set,  to  erect  a  monument  in  comme- 
moration of  the  fourth  centenary  of  the  new  calendar 
instituted  at  that  place  by  Nubti-Suti,  or  Sutech- aa-peh- 
ti-nubti,  shepherd- king  and  worshipper  of  Sutech.  This 
possibly  indicates  the  ground  on  which  he  favoured  the 
northern  god,  and  gives  some  support  to  the  supposition 
that  he  was  really  a  descendant  of  the  king  just  men- 
tioned. Or  it  may  be  that  he  deemed  it  a  matter  of 
importance  from  a  political  point  of  view  that  he,  as  con- 
queror of  Palestine  and  ally  of  his  former  enemies  the 
Cheta,  should  pay  special  honour  to  the  religion  of  these 
northern  regions.  It  would  appear  that  even  at  Koptos, 
where  from  of  old  Chem  or  Min,  in  whom  we  recognised 
the  same  god  as  Horos-Munt  and  Amun,  was  worshipped, 
the  worship  of  Set  was  introduced  by  Eamses,  and  com- 
bined with  that  of  the  local  deity.2 

1  Brugsch,  Histoire,  p.  150  etseq.      covered  near  Koptos  contains  the 

2  At  leasta  stela  of  this  period  dis-     unusual  combination  Munt-har-Set. 


174         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Nor  was  Memphis  forgotten.  It  was  in  the  reign  of 
Eamses  Meriamun  that  the  Apis-worship  revived  with 
renewed  glory,  and  that  the  worship  paid  to  the  dead 
sacred  bulls,  if  it  did  not  then  originate,  was  at  least 
practised  with  especial  devotion.  If  every  justified  dead 
person  became  Osiris,  the  same  happened  in  the  case  of 
the  consecrated  Apis  at  his  death,  and  hence  he  received 
the  name  Asar-hapi,  which  gave  rise  to  the  word  Sera- 
peum,  applied  to  the  magnificent  burial-place  of  these 
animals  which  Mariette  discovered  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Memphis.  One  of  the  sons  of  Eamses,  probably  the 
heir-apparent  to  the  throne,  who,  however,  died  before  his 
father,  Chamus  (Sha-em-Zam,  as  his  name  used  to  be 
read),  had  devoted  himself  wholly  to  the  service  of  Ptah 
in  this  form.  It  would  appear  that  he  caused  himself 
to  be  entombed  in  the  most  beautiful  sepulchre  of  that 
edifice.  At  least  in  one  of  the  chapels,  on  the  outside  of 
which  are  nothing  but  inscriptions  applying  to  a  dead 
Apis,  there  has  been  discovered  the  fragment  of  a  mummy 
in  human  form,  upon  which  the  name  of  Chamüs  may 
be  seen  several  times  repeated.  If  it  is  really  his  corpse 
that  lies  buried  here,  this  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
examples  of  how  the  Egyptians  were  accustomed  to  iden- 
tify themselves  completely,  both  in  life  and  death,  with 
the  deity  to  whom  they  had  chosen  to  consecrate  them- 
selves. Chamus,  governor  of  Memphis  and  high-priest 
(Sem)  of  Ptah,  and  the  living  Apis,  thus  desired  to  rest 
by  the  side  of  the  adored  animals  to  whom,  as  manifesta- 
tions of  his  favourite  god,  he  had  during  his  life  paid 
homage.  It  is  certain  that  in  this  respect  the  place  of 
Chamüs  was  filled,  even  in  the  lifetime  of  their  father 
Eamses,  by  his  other  son  and  future  successor,  Merenptha 
(Menepthes). 

Ebers  has  drawn  from  it  the  same  not    unlikely.      Even    the    ancient 

inference  as  that  in  the  text.     The  kings  called  themselves  Horos-Set, 

expression,  however,  may  also  simply  as  being  rulers  over  both  divisions 

signify,  "  Munt,  lord  of  Upper  and  of  the  country. 
Lower  Egypt,"  which  appears  to  me 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         175 

The   treaty   made   between  Eamses   II.   and  Chetasir, 
king  of  the  Cheta,  the  powerful  nation  that  persistently 
contested  with  the  Egyptians1  the  sovereignty  of  Western 
Asia,  and  whose  exact  geographical  position  and  race  are 
not   yet   precisely    determined,   gives    us   very   valuable 
insight   into   the   religious   ideas   of    the   time    and   the 
principal  religions  of  the  kingdom.     It  is  represented  as 
the  execution  of  the  decrees  of  the  gods,  particularly  of 
"  Ea  and  Sutech  for  the  land  of  Egypt  in  its  relation  to 
the  land  of  Cheta."     Ea  is  here  the  representative  of 
Egypt,  Suti,  or  Sutech,  that  of  the  people  of  the  Cheta ; 
these  were  accordingly  the  distinctive  national  gods  of 
the  two  countries  respectively.     In  the  next  place,  the 
following,  Amun-ra,  Harmachu,  Ptah  of  Memphis,  lord 
of  Anchta  (the  land  of  life,  or  the  living  world),  Munt, 
lady  of  Acheru  (the  under  world),  and  thus  a  goddess 
of  the  mother  earth,  and  Chonsu-nefer-hotep,  are  named 
as  patron  gods  of  Eamses,   and   he,  besides  presenting 
offerings   to    most    of    these    gods,   presents   them    also 
to  Set,  "the  great   warrior,  the   son  of   Nu."      As  the 
solemnities   of  the  treaty  were  transacted  in  the  town 
named  after  the  king,  Pa-Eamses  Meriamun,  the  town 
at   the  building   or  fortification   of  which  Exodus  tells 
us  that  the  oppressed  Hebrews  were  forced  to  labour, 
Eamses  paid  homage  expressly  to  the  forms  of  Amun  and 
Ptah,  for  which  he  had  in  that  place  erected  sanctuaries. 
Among  the  Egyptian  gods  whose  blessing  was  invoked 
over  this  treaty  there  were  named,  over  and  above  those 
already  mentioned,  the  hills  and  the  streams,  the  earth, 
the  winds,  nay  even,  what  is  very  remarkable,  thunder- 
storms, and  the  great  sea.     The  Cheta  likewise,  although 
they  worshipped  Sutech  as  their  principal  god,  and  his 
name  seems  to  have  acquired  among  them  an  appellative 

1  Prof.   Sayce  of  Oxford  has  re-  (Girbas,  the  ancient  Gargamish),  that 

cently  conjectured,  on  the  evidence  they  were  nearest  akin  to  the  Sumirs 

of  the  Hethite  names  and  of  some  and   Accads,  the  original  founders 

words  deciphered  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  Chaldean  and  Assyrian  civi- 

of  Hamath  in  Syria,  and  of  Jerabees  lisation. 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

signification,  like  that  of  Baal  among  the  Syro-Phoeni- 
cians,  were  by  no  means  monotheists.  Among  them,  as 
among  the  Egyptians,  we  hear  of  hundreds  of  male  and 
female  gods,  some  of  whom  are  referred  to.  Antarta 
(Astarte  ?)  is  specially  named.  They  likewise  looked 
upon  mountains  and  streams  as  sacred.  From  all  this 
it  is  seen  that,  as  regards  religious  worship,  there  was  in 
the  main  no  difference  between  the  two  peoples,  and  that 
the  Egyptians  at  least  found  no  difficulty  in  adopting  the 
eods  of  the  Cheta  as  their  own. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  it  was  in  the  reign  of 
Menephta,  son  and  successor  of  Kamses,  that  the  exodus 
of  the  Hebrews  from  Egypt  occurred,  for  the  hypothesis, 
which  was  till  recently  the  most  favoured,  that  this  event 
took  place  in  the  reign  of  Eamses  III.  of  the  twentieth 
dynasty,  has  been  completely  refuted  by  Chabas.  This 
distinguished  scholar  has  also  proved  that  Menephta  was 
not,  as  has  hitherto  been  believed  on  the  authority  of 
Manetho,  a  feeble  and  incapable  ruler,  and  the  whole  tale 
of  the  priest  of  Sebennys  about  the  exodus  Chabas  regards 
as  being  a  pure  fabrication,  an  opinion  which  is  likewise 
my  own,  and  which  I  published  in  1870.  Menephta 
seems  to  have  had  his  residence  at  Memphis.  If  he 
supported  the  worship  of  Amun,  his  personal  devotion 
was  directed  with  fervour  towards  Ptah  and  Set,  and  the 
latter  he  worshipped  chiefly  in  the  form  assumed  by  him 
at  Avaris  (Pelusium),  which  was  of  a  character  rather 
foreign  than  Egyptian.  He  worshipped  him  also  as  Nub, 
lord  of  the  south;  for  Set,  no  doubt  on  account  of  his 
coarse  nature,  had  been  adopted  as  their  god  by  the 
barbarian  negroes  of  Nubia.  This  preference  for  gods  of 
the  Hethites  may  probably  be  explained  in  its  general 
principle  by  the  dread  of  an  invasion  by  that  people,  and 
by  the  wish,  if  a  conflict  should  occur,  to  gain  for  Egypt 
the  favour  of  the  foreign  deity;  yet  in  the  case  of 
Menephta,  as  in  that  of  his  father,  the  leaning  towards 
these   gods   may  perhaps  have  been   a   natural   charac- 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         177 

teristic;  the  effect  and  the  mark  of  the  race  whence  they 
descended. 

With  Menephthes  (Merenptah)  the  decline  of  the 
southern  power  begins,  which,  under  the  twentieth  dyn- 
asty, was  destined  to  proceed  with  increasing  rapidity. 
It  is  true  that  a  long  series  of  Theban  kings  still  bear 
rule,  and  that  among  them  there  are  some  who,  like 
Eamses  IIL,  approach  the  glory  of  Seti  and  Sesostris. 
They,  it  is  true,  likewise  continue  to  erect  monuments 
and  to  announce  in  bombastic  phrases  the  grandeur  of 
their  warlike  achievements,  but  the  traces  of  growing 
feebleness  are  unmistakably  visible.  I  shall  not  follow 
these  Eamesids  through  the  monotonous  history  of  their 
reigns ;  they  possess  little  or  no  originality,  and  are  mere 
copies,  some  of  them  very  unsuccessful  copies,  of  their 
predecessors.  The  most  conspicuous  among  them  is 
Eamses  III.,  already  referred  to,  who  erected  the  great 
temple  of  Amun-ra  at  Medinet-abu  (Thebes).  He  was 
the  last  conqueror  of  his  race.  His  successors  had  diffi- 
culty in  keeping  hold  of  their  possessions  ;  only  in  the  love 
of  fame  they  were  not  inferior  to  those  before  them.  They 
continued  to  erect  monuments  and  to  celebrate  their  own 
praises  upon  them,  until  at  length  the  priests  of  Amun 
succeeded  in  obtaining  for  themselves  in  reality  the 
sovereignty  which  for  long  they  had  practically  possessed, 
and  the  last  of  the  Eamesids  was  driven  by  them  from 
the  throne. 

Under  the  twentieth  dynasty,  religion  remained  the 
same  outwardly  as  under  the  preceding  kings.  The  only 
difference  we  can  perceive  is  a  more  zealous  worship  of  the 
god  Chonsu,  who  now  comes  more  to  the  front.  Eamses 
III.  erected  a  special  sanctuary  in  his  honour,  which  is 
the  principal  source  for  the  history  of  this  period ;  and 
a  tale  is  told  of  how  Chonsu's  fame  extended  even  to 
a  foreign  land.     This   seems  to   be   connected  with  two 

o 

circumstances  which  may  be  observed  in  this  period, 
namely,  the  growing  power  of  the  priests  and  the  increase 

M 


178  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

of  superstition.     Chonsu  was,  it  is  to  be  noted,  like  Arnun, 
but  to  even  a  greater  degree,  god  of  the  priests,  and  an 
oracle-god  who  worked  miracles.     The  first   high  priest 
who  assumed   the  crown,  Her-hor  by  name,  selected  the 
temple  of  Chonsu  as  the  place  in  which  to  announce  his 
great  deeds.     Chonsu  is  also  closely  connected  with  Thot, 
who  properly  is  the  god  of  scholars.     We  have  already 
frequently  cited   the   hymns  translated  by   Pleyte,  and 
which  date  from  the  time  of  the  twentieth  dynasty ;  they 
are  principally  dedicated  to  Ptah,  yet  in  them  the  form 
Thot-Chonsu  occurs,  and  Thot  is  invoked  with  a  great 
show  of  affection.     The  poet  forgets  that  it  is  Ptah  he  is 
celebrating,  and  all  at  once  breaks  out  into  praises  of  the 
god  of  Hermopolis ;  and  in  doing  so  calls  to  mind  how 
Thot,   the   patron   of    scholars,    artistically  laid  out  the 
garden  of  the  land  of  Egypt  after  his  plans,  and  arranged 
the  partition  of  the  fields  in  beautiful  order.     "  He  dis- 
tributed," so  he  himself  says,  and  the  application  is  un- 
mistakable, "  the  powers,  he  set  up  the  heads,  he  rooted 
out  faults,  he  abolished  lies,  a  pleasant  breath  came  forth 
from  him."     He  then  calls  to   mind  what  he  did  in  the 
conflict  of  the  gods — "  He,  the  great  arbiter  between  Set 
and  Horos,  the  reconciler  of  powers,  the  great  peacemaker 
in  the  conflict.     On  this  account  has  Ea  exalted  his  spirit, 
and  he,  skilled  in  ruling,  governs  men  and  gods."     Does 
not  this  read  like  an  invitation  to  have  confidence  in  the 
image-bearers  and  representatives  of  Thot  on  earth  who 
would  remove  offences,  and  prove  better  sovereigns  than 
the  weak  kings  ?     All  the  benefits  enjoyed  by  Egypt  pro- 
ceed in  truth  properly  from  them, — the  learned  class.     Pia 
himself  has  judged  that  they  are  fit  to  rule.     When  we 
recollect  that  this  was  written  in  the  reign  of  the  ninth 
Ramses,  the  allusion  to  what  was  about   to  happen  is 
evident  enough. 

A  conflict  between  the  authority  of  priest  and  king  was 
hardly  possible  in  earlier  times,  for  then  the  kings  them- 
selves, their  sons,  and  their  principal  officers  of  state  were 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         179 

the  chief  priests,  and  the  priestly  dignities  were  not  dis- 
severed from  nor  held  to  be  inconsistent  with  other  and 
civil  functions.  There  was  merely  a  learned  class,  not 
marked  off,  however,  more  distinctly  than  among  our- 
selves, and  which  men  could  enter  or  leave  at  pleasure. 
But  at  the  commencement  of  the  twentieth  dynasty  an 
alteration  appears  to  have  begun.  There  are  high  priests 
of  Amun  other  than  the  kings.  Priesthood  and  laity  are 
further  apart.  The  temple  of  Eamses  II.  at  Qurneh  is 
quite  open,  that  of  Eamses  III.  at  Medinet-abu  (both 
quarters  of  Thebes)  is  closed  by  a  balustrade  against  the 
eye  of  the  curious.1  The  office  of  first  prophet  or  high 
priest  did  not,  it  is  true,  become  hereditary,  as  seems  to 
have  been  the  case  at  this  time  with  other  offices ; 2  but 
still  it  passes  in  several  instances  from  father  to  son. 
A  thing  hitherto  unknown  in  Egypt  was  now  in  process 
of  formation  there,  namely,  a  separate  spiritual  caste,  a 
fixed  priesthood.  The  priests,  whether  nominated  by  the 
kings  or  appointed  in  some  other  way,  were  now  suffered 
to  take  charge  not  only  of  the  service  of  the  sanctuary, 
but  of  other  things  as  well.  To  the  authority  of  the 
kingjs  this  concession  was  fatal.  In  the  reign  of  Seti  II. 
the  high  priest  Eoi  had  made  his  influence  felt,  and  under 
his  successors  in  the  priestly  office — Eoma,  Meribast,  Eam- 
ses-necht,  Amun-hotep — that  influence  continued  steadily 
to  grow  more  and  more  considerable,  until  at  last  Herhor 
exchanged  the  title  of  grand  vizier  or  Major-domo  for  the 
royal  dignity.  With  that  event,  however,  the  power  of 
Thebes  was  broken  for  ever,  and  its  influence,  which 
would  seem  latterly  to  have  been  maintained  by  the  glory 
of  the  name  of  Eamses  only,  now  became  extinct.     There 

1  This  is  noted  by  Sharpe,  His-  South  Egypt,  and  who  combined 
tory  of  Egypt,  p.  92,  a  book  which  that  office  with  the  discharge  of 
must  in  other  respects  be  used  with  other  functions,  some  of  them  re- 
great  caution.  ligious.     All  the  ancestors,  the  first 

2  Thus  we  have  a  full  list  of  the  of  whom  goes  back  certainly  to  the 
ancestors  of  a  certain  Chnum-het-ra,  end  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  fill  the 
who,  under  Amasis  (571-527  B.C.),  same  office.  Brugsch,  Hic-toire,  p. 
was   head   architect  of   North  and  256  et  seq. 


iSo         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

was,  it  is  true,  in  Egypt,  nothing  more  common  than  that 
the  king  should  be  at  the  head  of  religion  as  well  as  of 
the  state,  but  a  supremacy  exercised  by  the  priesthood  of 
one  particular  deity,  even  the  highest,  was  entirely  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  the  people. 

Contemporary  with  the  growth  of  priestly  authority  in 
the  south,  which  still  continued  to  be  the  seat  of  empire, 
was  the  growth — not  unconnected  with  the  first — of  super- 
stition.    The  people  of  Egypt  were  already  sufficiently 
inclined  to  it,  and  in  their  religion  mysticism  and  magic 
took  a  prominent  place.     With  a  symbolism  so  extensive 
that  at  last  even  the  learned  failed  to  decipher  it,  this  was 
inevitable.     But  in  the  period  on  which  our  attention  is 
now  fixed,  this  inclination  waxed  stronger.     Sober  moral 
maxims  like  those  of  Ptah-hotep  of  the  Old  Kingdom, 
tales  of  real  life  like  that  of  Saneha  of  the  Middle  King- 
dom, are  no  longer  to  the  taste  of  this   period.     Fancy 
made  good  her  claims.     There  must  be  poetry  now,  and 
above  all,  magical  books  filled  with  spells,  and  songs  of 
power,  and  tales  of  wonder  like  that  of  Anepu  and  Batau. 
This  change  is  visible  even  in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead." 
In  the  chapters  that  belong  to  this  period  the  symbols 
and   ceremonial   are   more  intricate,   and    the   formulas 
longer.     The  advantage  to  be  gained  by  the  use  of  par- 
ticular chapters  is  brought  more  forward,  and  is  dilated 
on  at  greater  length.1     To  such   an  extent  did  sorcery 
increase,   that   in   the   reign    of    Kamses   II.   it   became 
necessary  for  the  authorities  to  take  measures  against  it. 
A  certain  Hai,  or  Hui,  was  condemned  to  death  because 
he  was  a  conjuror,  and  had  bewitched  people  "  by  divine 
power,"  for  which  purpose  he  had  cunningly  contrived  to 
get  possession  of  a  magical  book.     Evidently  the  judges 
themselves    never  doubted  the   reality   of   this   magical 
power,  but  they  passed  sentence  of  death  upon  Hai,  who 
was  a  herdsman,  because  he   carried  on  the  practice  of 
magic  in  an  unauthorised  manner.2     The  love  of  magic 

1  See  Lefébure,  Hymnes  au  Soleil,         2  Chabas,   Pap.  Mag.  Harris,  p. 
p.  6.  170- 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.  1S1 

must  certainly  have  been  great,  when  people  busied 
themselves  with  it  even  at  the  risk  of  being  capitally 
punished.  About  this  time,  too,  great  stress  began  to  be 
laid  upon  particular  days.  There  are  various  calendars  of 
the  time  of  the  Eamesids  which  tell  the  good  and  the 
fatal  days  (dies  fasti  et  nc  fasti),  and  which  contain  rules 
to  be  followed,  in  order  to  prevent  disaster.  One  of  these 
I  cite  with  some  examples  : — 

24.  Thot  (June — July)  was  a  great  day  of  mourning. 
On  it  and  on  the  two  following  days  the  great  conflict 
took  place  between  Set  and  Horos,  in  which  Set  was  not 
slain,  and  Isis  was  wounded. 

9.  Paophi  (July— August).  A  propitious  day,  for  on  it 
the  gods  had  slain  their  enemy. 

12.  Choiak  (September — October).  On  this  day  one 
ought  not  to  go  out,  because  it  is  the  day  on  which  the 
transformation  of  Osiris  into  the  Bennu-bird  takes  place. 

14.  Toby  (October — November).  Listen  to  no  volup- 
tuous songs,  because  Isis  and  Nephthys  on  this  day  bewail 
their  brother  Osiris. 

17.  Toby.  Do  not  bathe,  because  the  goddess  Nu,  the 
heavenly  water,  goes  out  upon  this  day. 

20.  Toby.  Barisis  takes  away  the  light  of  the  world, 
where  is  darkness  only.     Therefore  until  sunset  do  not 

£JO  OUt. 

3.  Mechir  (November — December).  Do  not  travel,  for 
on  this  day  Set  accomplished  one  of  his  journeys. 

14.  Mechir.  Sebak  slain  upon  the  deck  of  the  bark  of 
the  gods.     Do  not  go  out. 

29.  Mechir.  Set  in  all  his  fury.  Look  upon  nothing 
till  sunset. 

24.  Pharmuthi  (January — February).  Do  not  pro- 
nounce the  name  of  Set  in  joke,  else  there  will  be  quarrels 
and  dispeace  in  the  house. 

Much  fasting  is  now  enjoined.  Days  without  mytho- 
logical reference,  and  those  on  which  the  gods  were 
victorious,  are  all  propitious.     The  references  are  chiefly 


i82         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

borrowed  from  the  Osirian  mythology.1  In  the  opinion 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  the  day  on  which  a  man  was 
born,  naturally  exercised  of  necessity  a  great  influence 
upon  his  future  lot.  One  born  on  the  5  th  Paophi  will  be 
killed  by  a  bull,  but  one  whose  birthday  is  kept  on  the 
9th  of  the  same  month,  is  destined  to  live  to  a  great  age. 
And  so  on  for  a  great  many  other  days  in  the  year. 
People  also  occupied  themselves  not  a  little  at  this  period 
with  mystic  names  and  magical  formulas  that  were  utterly 
destitute  of  meaning.  The  162nd  chapter  of  the  "Book 
of  the  Dead,"  that  must  have  been  written  in  the  time  of 
the  New  Kingdom,  contains  invocations  of  such  names 
as  Penhakahakaher-her,  Uarauaakarsank-Eobiti,  and  was 
therefore  considered  to  be  very  profound.  Other  texts  of 
the  time  of  Eamses  II.  comprise  invocations  of  senseless 
names  of  the  same  sort,  such  as  Kamchar-Kamerau-Kar- 
chamu,  Shatabuta,  Artabuhuïa,  Anrohakata-Satita,  and 
countless  others.  Whoever  wishes  to  be  convinced  how 
far  belief  in  the  miraculous  had  overstepped,  among  the 
Egyptians,  all  bounds  of  possibility,  has  only  to  read  the 
tale  of  Patau  and  Anepu,2  already  referred  to,  which  has 
so  much  in  common  with  the  history  of  Joseph,  and 
which,  just  on  that  account,  offers  an  .admirable  oppor- 
tunity for  instituting  a  comparison  between  the  sound 
sense  of  the  Hebrew  narrator,  and  the  unbridled  phantasy 
that  prevailed  among  Israel's  former  oppressors.  It  is 
comparatively  nothing  that  Batau  understands  the  lan- 
guage of  animals,  and  that  there  springs  into  existence 
between  him  and  his  brother  who  persecutes  him  a  broad 
stream  filled  with  crocodiles ;  but  he  has  the  power  of 
laying  down  his  heart,  his  principle  of  life,  in  the  flower  of 
an  acacia,  so  that  when  the  flower  is  cut  off,  his  death 
must  of  necessity  be  the  result.     But  if  the  heart  is  laid 

1  De  Rouge,  Rev.  Arch.  1852,  ii.  Rouge",  Rev.  Arch.,  1852,  p.  385  et 
687-691.  Another  calendar  is  con-  seq.  Brugsch,  Aus  Dem  Orient,  p.  7 
tributed  by  Cbabas,  Pap.  Mag.  et  seq.  Ebers  Aeg.  u.  d.  Bucher 
Harris,  p.  157.  Moses,  p.    31 1    et  seq.;    and  Chabas 

2  The  tale  is   translated   by   De  treats  of  it  op.  cit.,  p.  164  et  seq. 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         183 

in  a  certain  liquid,  it  will  find  its  way  to  its  ordinary 
position,  and  Batau  will  rise  again.  Thus  it  came  to  pass. 
The  gods  shape  a  wife  for  him.  The  king  seizes  her  from 
him.  She  confides  the  secret  of  Batau's  heart  to  her  new 
husband.  Anepu,  however,  brings  his  brother  to  life 
again  by  the  aid  of  the  magical  liquid.  He  next  changes 
himself  into  a  bull,  a  holy  Apis.  The  king  having  dis- 
covered who  the  bull  is,  causes  him  to  be  killed,  but  from 
two  blood-drops  of  the  sacred  animal  two  magnificent 
persea  trees  arise.  These  are  in  turn  hewn  down,  and  all 
would  have  been  over  with  Batau,  had  not  a  splinter  of 
one  of  these  miraculous  trees  flown  into  the  mouth  of  the 
queen,  who,  by  and  by,  brings  her  own  husband  forth  into 
the  world  again  as  a  son. 

The  material  out  of  which  this  tale  is  woven  is  not 
far  to  seek.  Evidently  it  is  nothing  but  the  ancient 
mythology  and  theology  transferred  to  the  region  of 
humanity.  Who  does  not  recognise  in  Batau  the  hus- 
band of  his  mother :  the  god  who,  when  he  dies,  like  Ptah, 
in  the  sacred  bull,  revives,  like  Osiris,  in  the  sacred  acacia, 
or  persea  tree :  the  good  being  who  is  persecuted  and 
killed,  but  who  through  the  care  of  Anepu  (Anubis)  rises 
again  from  the  dead  ?  But  the  fact  that  these  holy  myths 
are  brought  down  from  the  world  of  the  gods  among  the 
children  of  men,  is  a  proof  that  the  original  signification 
of  these  sacred  emblems  had  become  lost  to  many,  and 
that  belief  in  the  miraculous  had  risen  to  an  amazing 
height. 

It  would  not  be  fair,  however,  to  judge  of  the  religious 
development  of  this  period  merely  from  such  extrava- 
gances. That  is  only  one  side  and  the  dark  side  of  the 
picture.  There  are  poems  and  hymns  which  give  brighter 
light,  and  show  that  loftiness  and  beauty  were  not  want- 
ing. Of  these,  examples  have  been  already  given,  and  it 
would  be  quite  easy  to  multiply  the  number  of  them  very 
considerably.  The  religion  which  was  the  source  of 
inspiration  for  such  works,  was  not,  we  may  be  sure,  lack- 


i84         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

ing  in  true  piety.  A  sufficient  proof  of  this  is  to  be  found 
in  the  truly  grand  conception  of  Amun-ra,  who  under  the 
'New  Kingdom  was  still  celebrated  in  hymns  that  recall 
often  the  most  beautiful  passages  of  the  Hebrew  psalms. 
In  one  hymn  he  is  designated  by  these  names  "the 
greatest  in  heaven,  the  oldest  upon  earth,  the  Lord  who 
gives  to  everything  existence  and  duration."  "His  hands 
give  to  those  whom  he  loves,  but  his  enemy  he  casts 
down  into  the  fire,  for  his  look  annihilates  the  workers  of 
iniquity,  and  the  ocean  engulfs  the  wicked  whom  he  con- 
sumes." "  Thou  alone  existest,  thou  the  creator  of  being." 
"  He  alone  has  formed  all  creatures.  Men  are  born  from 
his  look,  from  his  word  the  gods  receive  their  being.  He 
makes  the  plants  for  the  beasts,  and  fruit-bearing  trees 
for  mortals.  He  makes  the  fish  live  in  the  water,  the 
birds  beneath  the  vault  of  heaven;  he  makes  the  serm 
that  is  in  the  egg  grow,  he  gives  life  to  the  grasshoppers, 
he  feeds  all  that  crawls,  and  all  that  flies.  He  gives  their 
food  to  the  mice  in  their  holes.  Blessed  be  thou,  thou 
who  doest  these  things  !  Thanks  be  unto  thee,  who  art 
one  only  and  alone,  and  who  hast  several  arms  (symbol  of 
Amun-ra's  activity,  and  of  the  manifoldness  of  his  works). 
In  thy  rest  thou  watchest  over  men,  and  considerest  what 
is  best  for  the  beasts.  ...  As  high  as  heaven,  as  wide- 
stretching  as  the  earth,  as  deep  as  the  sea,  the  gods  fall 
down  before  thy  majesty  extolling  the  spirit  of  him  who 
has  created  all  things.  .  .  .  Praise  to  thy  spirit  because 
thou  hast  made  us ;  we  are  thy  creatures,  thou  hast  placed 
us  in  the  world." 

Taking  everything  into  consideration,  we  may  say  that 
at  this  time  religion  was  much  more  powerful  than  in 
the  preceding  periods.  Its  action  was  upon  the  whole 
field  of  life,  so  that  no  single  step  could  be  taken,  no 
enterprise  could  be  entered  on,  no  thought  could  be 
formed  apart  from  it.  That  is  likewise  the  result  of  an 
examination  of  the  tombs  of  this  period.  In  them  the  dead 
person  is  no  longer  represented  in  his  personal  and  domestic 


RELIGION  UNDER  THE  NEW  KINGDOM.         185 

life,  but  in  his  political  and  religious  life.  While  the  ancient 
magical  texts,  afterwards  gathered  together  in  the  "  Book 
of  the  Dead,"  are  rarely  found  in  the  tomb  temples  of  the 
preceding  periods,  in  those  of  the  New  Kingdom  they 
cover  all  the  walls ;  and  the  images  of  the  gods,  vainly 
sought  for  in  the  ancient  tombs,  here  shine  everywhere 
in  high  relief,  side  by  side  with  those  of  the  dead.  The 
mortuary  stelae  are  also  covered  with  religious  representa- 
tions.^ 

As  a  consequence  of  this  development,  we  must  note 
an  important  change  in  the  doctrine  of  immortality. 
From  this  time  all  who  die  become  Osiris.  In  place  of 
the  ancient  faith  that  the  future  life  was  only  a  continua- 
tion of  the  present,  we  find  now  the  doctrine  of  retri- 
bution. The  resurrection  of  the  god  of  light  continues 
indeed  to  be  the  pledge  and  guarantee  of  that  of  his 
worshipper,  but  this  new  life  is  believed  to  depend  hence- 
forth on  the  man's  moral  conduct  and  religious  zeal. 
This  indicates  genuine  progress  in  religion,  though  on  the 
other  hand  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  this  eudemonism 
did  not  always  exercise  the  most  favourable  influence  on 
morality.  The  superstitious  practices  and  magical  for- 
mulas of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  coupled  with  the 
increasing  power  of  the  priests,  are  to  be  accounted  for  in 
a  great  measure  bv  fear  of  the  judgment. 


(     1 86    ) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION  FROM  THE  FALL   OF  THE  RAMESIDS 
TO   THE   PERSIAN   CONQUEST. 

The  supremacy  of  the  South  ended  simultaneously  with 
the  fall  of  the  Theban  sovereignty.  If  Thebes  again 
recovers  once  or  twice  a  little  of  its  former  greatness,  it  sis 
indebted  for  that  to  northern  kings  who  raise  it  for  a  time 
from  its  humiliation.  The  South  does  not  indeed  give  up 
the  contest.  The  Theban  high  priests  of  Amun  who  had 
usurped  the  throne  of  the  Rameside  kings  were  soon 
driven  out,  and  found  themselves  compelled  to  take  refuge 
in  Ethiopia,  and  in  their  persons  the  genuine  Egyptian 
royal  line  was  in  fact  banished  from  the  country.  Yet, 
constantly,  whenever  the  least  opportunity  offered,  when 
there  was  the  smallest  chance  of  success,  so  soon  as  any 
division  or  confusion  arose  in  the  North,  they  come  forth 
from  their  retreat  and  bring  the  whole  country  into  sub- 
jection ;  but  they  no  longer  have  power  enough  to  main- 
tain their  sway.  It  is  from  the  North  that  the  dynasties 
arise  which  now  reign  and  are  regarded  as  legitimate,  till 
foreign  conquerors  deprive  them  of  their  sceptre,  at  the 
time  when  those  nations,  who  were  then  foremost  in  the 
world,  contested  the  sovereignty  of  it  among  themselves, 
Egypt  being  part  of  the  prize. 

A  dynasty  of  Lower  Egypt  having  its  seat  at  Tanis,  or 
belonging  originally  to  that  town,  took  advantage  of  the 
strife  between  the  kings  and  priests  at  Thebes  so  as  to 
get  the  supreme  power  into  their  own  hands.  Were  these 
descendants  of  the  former  Shepherd  Kings,  or  at  least  con- 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  187 

nected  with  them  in  some  way  ?  Had  they  perhaps 
sprung  from  the  family  of  the  commander  Seti,  whom  we 
met  with  in  the  reign  of  Eamses  II.  as  governor  of  the 
north-eastern  districts  ?  As  to  this  we  are  quite  in  the 
dark,  as  we  also  are  in  regard  to  the  history  of  these 
kings.  This  much  is  certain,  under  their  rule  the  Tanitic 
religion,  the  worship  of  Sutech,  was  not  the  prevalent  one, 
but  rather  a  religion  which  had  its  seat  at  Mendes,  another 
town  in  the  Delta. 

The  religion  of  Mendes  was  very  ancient,  and  existed 
all  along  under  the  kings  of  the  Old  Kingdom.  Thus 
early,  whether  by  Kakau  (Kaiechos),  or  by  his  son  Binuter 
(Binothris),  the  worship  of  the  sacred  he-goat  appears  to 
have  been  instituted  at  that  place  (see  p.  97).  Mendes — 
for  this  properly  was  the  name  of  the  he-goat,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  the  Greeks  who  transferred  the  name  of  the 
sacred  animal  to  the  town — signifies  "  the  he-goat  of  Ded 
or  Dud,"  or  also,  because  the  he-goat  is  its  symbol,  "the 
spirit,  the  soul  of  Ded."  Ded  was  the  name  of  the  town, 
and  it  also  has  a  mythological  meaning.  Ded — or  as  the 
various  readings  give   it,  dudu   or  dad — is   the  familiar 

Co  ' 

pillar  with  the  four  cross-beams  or  tables  on  the  top,  com- 
monly called  the  tat-pillar,  and  believed  by  Champollion 
to  be  a  nilometer.  The  pillar  expresses  the  idea  of  dura- 
bility, stability, — an  idea  which  from  the  most  remote 
antiquity  takes  such  a  prominent  place  in  all  Mesopo- 
tamian  religions.  To  me  it  appears  that  the  pillar  is  an 
ima^e  of  the  universe  itself,  of  which  the  cross-beams 
represent  the  four  heavens  arching  above  each  other,  as 
they  are  frequently  to  be  seen  represented  in  the  vignettes 
of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead." 1 

1  In  Hebrew  the  word  signifying  already  noticed.  At  Busiris,  too,  a 
world  is  likewise,  as  is  well  known,  place  which  takes  its  name  from 
derived  from  a  root  signifying  "  to  Osiris,  a  festival  was  celebrated, 
be  durable."  That  the  dad- pillar  has  called,  "The  erection  of  the  dad- 
some  connection  with  Osiris,  and  pillar."  The  name  of  the  priest 
also  with  Ptah,  is  evident  from  the  Pe-nehem-isis,  upon  whose  tomb- 
fact  that  they  are  themselves  often  monument  the  name  of  King  Ban- 
represented  in  this  form,  as  we  have  ded,  the  first  of  this  dynasty,   oc- 


1 88         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Ba-n-cled  would  then  signify  the  spirit  of  the  universe, 
and  was  no  other  than  Chnum  himself,  in  his  highest  and 
most  comprehensive  form.  Chnum,  represented  at  Mendes 
as  the  god  with  the  four  ram's  heads,  to  whom  reference 
has  before  been  made,  was  worshipped  there  as  the  creat- 
ing or  life-giving  spirit  of  the  four  worlds  of  Ea  (the  upper 
heaven),  of  Shu  (the  air,  or  heaven  of  clouds),  of  Set  (the 
earth),  and  of  Osiris  (the  under- world),  and  these  worlds 
are  precisely  those  which  are  symbolised  by  the  pillar  Ded 
or  Dud.  These  four  spirits  were  represented  separately  in 
various  places  :  in  the  highest  conception  of  Chnum  they 
are  united  together,  and  form  a  quaternity.  It  is  pro- 
bable that  each  of  the  four  gods  had  also  his  own  special 
temple  at  Mendes. 

In  spite  of  great  divergence,  and  a  more  or  less  differing 
conception  of  the  deity,  Mendes  and  Thinis-Abydos  con- 
tinued always  in  relation  with  each  other,  and  priests 
were  even  transferred  from  the  one  town  to  the  other. 
Transference  from  Mendes  to  Abydos  seems  to  have  been 
considered  promotion.  A  certain  scribe  in  the  time  of 
Eamses  VIII.  tells  how  he  was  a  servant  of  the  king  in 
the  fortification  Mendes,  in  Lower  Egypt,  while  his  father 
was  singer  and  servant  of  the  Pharaoh  in  Abydos,  and  he 
himself  was  soon  transferred  thither  by  command  of  the 
king  to  fill  the  important  post  of  messenger  or  courier. 
His  account  is  introduced  by  an  address  to  Osiris  of 
Abydos  in  company  with  the  deities  worshipped  along 
with  him  in  that  town,  and  to  Osiris  of  Mendes.1  We  can 
at  the  same  time  see  from  this  inscription  that  so  early  as 
under  the  Eameside  kings,  the  revival  of  Osiris  worship 
had  begun. 

The  first  Tanitic  kings  were  succeeded  on  the  throne  by 

curs,  indicates  likewise  the  worship  habit  of  prefixing  such  an  s  to  foreign 

of  Osiris.     The  Greeks   called   this  names,  as  Smerdes,  which  was  their 

king    Smendes.       To    explain    this  form    of    Bardiya.       See    Brugsch, 

transformation   we    need   not  with  Histoire,  p.  213. 

Brugsch  accept  a  syllable,  -nes,  pre-  1  See  the  inscription  in  Brugsch, 

fixed  to  the  name  Banded,  for  the  Histoire,  p.  204. 

Greeks  were   pretty    much   in   the 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  189 

a -dynasty  that  must  in  all  likelihood  have  originated  in 
Bubastis,  the  town  of  Lower  Egypt  more  to  the  south  than 
Mendes  and  Tanis,  situated  however  on  the  Tanaitic  branch 
of  the  Nile.  The  names  of  this  dynasty  are  mostly  very 
un-Egyptian,  and  sound  like  pure  Babylonian- Assyrian, 
Takel  ut  (Tiglath),  Nimrut,  Sargin,  Nabonesha,  Shashank ; 
yet  these  were  by  no  means  foreign  conquerors  who 
now  took  the  government  into  their  hands.  Eor  many 
years  their  ancestors  had  been  quietly  settled  in  Egypt. 
Their  origin  was  indicated  by  the  names  they  continued 
to  give  to  their  children,  but  so  completely  had  they 
adopted  the  Egyptian  manner  of  life  that  they  even 
fulfilled  priestly  offices.  They  had  allied  themselves  by 
marriage  with  the  immediately  preceding  Tanitic  dynasty, 
and  were  even,  previous  to  that,  connected  with  the  priest- 
kings  of  Thebes.  It  was  by  virtue,  no  doubt,  of  this 
blood-relationship  that  they  attained  the  sovereignty. 

Nor  was  it  a  foreign  religion  they  introduced;  rather 
they  reverted  to  the  Theban  Amun  worship  which  they 
held  in  high  esteem.  Shashank  I.  is  familiar  to  us  through 
his  patronage  of  Jeroboam,  when  the  latter  was  obliged  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  of  Solomon  and  of  Hadad  the  Edomite 
prince ;  and  likewise  on  account  of  his  campaign  against 
Judah,  he  having,  as  we  know,  been  hostile  to  Solomon  and 
Rehoboam.  As  he  himself  testifies,  he  was  a  high  priest  of 
Amun-ra,  the  king  of  the  gods.  On  the  whole,  these  kings 
did  not  depart  from  the  religious  tradition  handed  down  by 
the  rulers  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties.  The 
same  gods  who  were  then  most  reverenced  are  now  also 
found  at  the  head  of  the  official  pantheon.  Shashank  I. 
serves  Amun  and  Mut,  Harmachis  and  Turn,  Ptah  (in  the 
form  of  Ptah-nun)  ;  thus  the  same  triad  that  in  the  time 
of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  represented  the  religion  of  the 
whole  empire.  Sutech  alone,  whom  the  Eameside  kings, 
or  rather  the  descendants  of  Seti  I.,  ^placed  alongside  of 
this  triad,  is  awanting.  He  began  to  fall  a  little  into  the 
background  and  to  lose  favour,  though  his  name  still  occurs 


i9o         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

frequently.  The  day  of  his  greatest  glory  is  over,  but,  as 
yet,  the  days  of  his  utter  humiliation  have  not  arrived, 
when  he  is  destined  to  be  thrust  as  an  evil  and  repulsive 
being  out  of  the  company  of  his  brothers  and  sisters  and 
from  the  ranks  of  the  great  gods.  He  appears  to  have  been 
indebted  to  the  Persians  and  Greeks  for  this  furious  per- 
secution. As  in  the  good  old  times  Shashank  made  his 
son  Shuput  (Shofet  ?)  at  once  high  priest  of  Amun  and 
commander  of  the  cavalry ;  and  to  another  high  priest  of 
the  same  god,  who  discharged  the  function  of  architect,  he 
issued  an  order  to  restore  the  temple  of  the  Theban  chief 
god  in  full  magnificence,  a  command  carried  out,  if  we 
may  trust  the  inscriptions,  with  great  zeal.  From  this 
it  would  appear  that  the  service  of  Amun  had  fallen  into 
decay  along  with  its  principal  seat.  But  it  is  said  of 
Shashank  that  he  caused  Thebes  to  revive.  Nor  were  his 
favours  confined  to  Thebes,  both  at  Hermonthis  and  at 
Heliopolis  (the  two  Ans)  he  erected  monuments  (In- 
scription in  the  temple  of  Amun  at  Thebes).  His  inten- 
tion was  thus  clearly  to  restore  the  brilliant  Theban 
theocracy  to  its  former  glory. 

All  his  successors  followed  the  same  course.  Osorkon 
I.,  his  son,  is  mentioned  at  Thebes  as  a  worshipper  of 
Amun,  Hathor,  and  Chnum.  Under  Osorkon  II.  the  wor- 
ship of  Apis  was  restored  at  Memphis,  and  just  as  in  the 
time  of  Eamses  II.  it  was  his  son  Chamlis  who  brought 
about  a  similar  reformation,  so  now  it  was  the  son  and 
heir-apparent  of  King  Shashank  to  whom  the  restoration 
was  intrusted.  Another  of  his  sons  was  appointed  as 
high  priest  of  Amun,  commander-in-chief  of  the  troops 
belonging  to  the  temple  of  this  god,  and  governor  of  the 
South.  Hence  in  every  particular  the  pattern  set  by  the 
ancient  kings  was  followed.  The  restoration  was  thorough, 
and  until  the  end  of-  this  dynasty  Amun  and  Ptah  con- 
tinued to  be  the  principal  gods. 

But  meanwhile,  according  to  the  usage  of  reigning 
Egyptian  dynasties,  they  by  no  means  forsook  the  local 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  191 

religion  of  their  former  place  of  abode,  although  now  they 
were  settled  at  Thebes.  What  they  did  in  this  respect 
cannot  be  denned  with  certainty,  for  Bubastis  is  now  a 
mere  heap  of  rubbish ;  but  it  is  evident  that  they,  as  well 
as  the  three  Tanitic  kings  of  the  twenty-eighth  dynasty 
who  succeeded  them,  remained  faithful  to  the  worship 
of  Bast,  for  a  number  of  names  of  both  families  are 
combined  with  that  of  Bast,  and  among  other  instances 
proving  this,  there  occurs  the  name  Pachi,  the  cat,  the 
sacred  animal  of  the  goddess  of  Bubastis. 

Bubastis  appears  to  be  very  ancient,  and  its  name  (Pa- 
Bast,  abode  of  Bast)  indicates  that  it  was  called  after  the 
goddess  Bast,  and  that  homage  had  always  been  paid  to 
her  there.1  It  must  certainly,  however,  have  been  to  these 
kings,  to  their  supremacy,  and  to  their  royal  patronage, 
that  the  worship  of  this  goddess  is  indebted  for  its  wide 
extension,  and  for  the  height  of  splendour  to  which  it 
attained  at  the  time  when  Herodotus  visited  it  five  cen- 
turies later.  The  father  of  history  wrote  a  vivid  account 
of  the  beautiful  temple  sacred  to  Bast,  and  of  the  joyous 
celebration  .of  the  festival  in  her  honour.  The  temple, 
he  tells  us,  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  water,  except  at 
the  entrance,  for  two  canals  that  lead  from  the  Nile  to 
the  entrance  of  the  temple  meet  behind  it,  thus  shutting 
in  the  whole  edifice  both  to  right  and  left.  The  sacred 
wall  encircling  the  whole  sanctuary  extends  600  feet  in 
length  and  the  same  in  breadth,  and,  like  other  parts  of 
the  temple,  is  covered  with  numerous  drawings.  The 
holy  of  holies  is  surrounded  by  a  sacred  grove  of  very 
lofty  trees.  From  the  entrance  a  broad  well-paved  road, 
planted  on  both  sides  with  trees,  leads  to  another  temple 
dedicated  to  Hermes,  who  seemingly  is  Thot.  As  the 
ground  on  which  the  town  was  built  had  been  perceptibly 

1  Brugsch,  Histoire,  p.  33,  infers  thos).  This  is  but  slight  proof,  still 
the  antiquity  of  Bubastis  from  the  the  goddess  occurs  in  very  early- 
fact  that  the  town  is  mentioned  by  times  on  the  monuments,  and  among 
Manetho  so  early  as  in  the  reign  of  other  instances  in  the  "  Book  of  the 
a  king  of  the  second  dynasty  (Boe-  Dead." 


192         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

raised,  and  the  temple  alone  remained  standing  on  its  old 
foundations,  it  was  easy  to  overlook  the  whole  sacred 
enclosure,  situated  as  it  was  in  the  middle  of  the  town. 
Such  is  an  outline  of  the  chief  features  of  the  temple  at 
Bubastis,  as  given  by  Herodotus,  who  had  seen  it  himself 
(ii.  138).  Elsewhere  (ii.  59  et  seq.)  he  says  that  no  festival 
was  celebrated  with  such  magnificence  and  such  uncon- 
strained, nay,  even  such  wanton  delight,  nor  did  any  other 
awaken  such  universal  sympathy  as  that  held  in  hononr 
of  Bast.  The  pilgrimage  to  Bubastis  was  made  in  boats 
filled  with  people  of  all  ages  and  of  both  sexes.  Music 
and  song  beguiled  their  journey.  At  every  town  to  which 
they  came  in  passing,  a  halt  was  made,  the  inhabitants 
hurried  out  to  look  at  the  pilgrims,  but  had  to  submit  to 
being  scolded  by  the  women  of  the  party,  and  were  obliged 
to  dance  when  they  heard  the  music.  On  such  occasions 
the  Egyptian  ladies  appear  to  have  been  absolved  from 
the  natural  laws  of  chastity.  If  we  believe  Herodotus, 
this  festival  alone  was  attended  by  no  less  than  700,000 
persons,  which  is  not  very  probable ;  and  not  only  were  a 
vast  number  of  sacrifices  offered  on  this  occasion,  but 
more  wine  was  drunk  than  in  the  whole  year  besides. 

Who  then,  let  us  ask,  was  the  deity  to  whom  homage 
was  paid  in  so  merry  a  fashion  ? 

She  is  called  Pacht,  "  the  devouring  one,"  a  name  which 
she  has  in  common  with  the  lion,  and  still  oftener  Sechet, 
"  she  that  kindles  the  fire."  There  is  no  doubt  she  was  a 
goddess  of  the  heavenly  fire,  whether  of  the  thunderbolt, 
or,  what  is  more  likely  in  Egypt,  of  the  scorching  rays 
of  the  sun.  She  vomits  out  flames  against  the  wicked 
to  consume  them,  and  the  torture  of  the  wicked  in  the 
under-world  is  under  her  direction.  She  is  represented 
as  a  lioness  couchant,  or  sometimes  rampant,  vomiting 
forth  flames,  and  likewise  as  a  woman  with  the  head  of  a 
cat,1  and  is  nearly  akin  to  Tafnu  the  Heliopolitan  goddess, 

1  She  is  named,  which  is  remark-     form  she  is  usually  represented.    In 
able,  after  the  animal  under  whose     this,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  she  alone 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.     193 

who  is  represented  in  the  same  form.  As  goddess  of  fire, 
especially  of  the  scorching  sun-heat,  she  is  goddess  of  war. 
Enough  light  has  not  been  thrown  on  the  subject  to 
enable  us  to  explain  how  she  came  to  be  also  patroness  of 
works  of  peace,  of  libraries  for  instance,  and  "  mistress  of 
the  thoughts."  We  find  the  same  combination,  warrior 
goddess,  and  "  mistress  of  thoughts,"  in  Athena  and 
Minerva.  Possibly  the  reason  why  power  over  the 
thoughts  was  ascribed  to  the  dread  Sechet  is  simply  to  be 
found  in  the  belief  of  the  people  in  the  great  inherent 
virtue  of  magical  songs  and  spells,  as  a  means  of  conquering 
and  annihilating  the  wicked  and  all  enemies.  She  may 
thus  be  goddess  of  the  violent  destructive  power  of  words. 
This  explanation,  however,  I  do  not  bring  forward,  except 
as  a  pure  hypothesis. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  most  of  the  goddesses  who 
by  their  origin  belong  to  Western  Asia,  as  Sechet  seems  to 
have  done,1  had  a  double  form,  and  a  double  manifesta- 
tion (see  p.  135);  on  the  one  side  as  maiden-goddesses, 
warlike,  severe,  violent  (Astaroth/ Tanit),  on  the  other  as 
mother-goddesses,  benevolent,  beneficent.  Their  worship 
in  the  latter  form,  out  of  opposition  to  the  strictness  of  the 
former,  generally  ran  into  the  greatest  licence  (Ashera, 
Anahit).  In  like  manner,  in  opposition  to  the  raging 
Sechet,  we  find  here  the  mild  Bast,  "  the  mistress  of  life  in 
the  two  tracts  "  (Ins.  at  Aradus),  and  mother  of  Nofre-tum, 
the  good  sun-god.  She  is  represented  equally  with  Sechet 
as  having  the  head  of  a  lion  or  a  cat,2  and  she  is  a  fire- 
goddess,  for  her  name  is  connected  with  best  =  "  flame," 


among  all  the  gods  of  the  Egyptian  1  See   Pap.   Mag.    825,  Br.  Mus. 

pantheon  is  in  agreement  with  Sebak  Birch's  trans,  in  Rev.  Arch.,    1863, 

the  crocodile  god,  who  was  imported  vii.  125.    Comp.  ibid,  viii.,  429  etseq., 

from  Nubia,  or  Ethiopia,  and  this  is  and  438.     She  is  there  described  as 

an  argument  for  her  being  of  foreign  "  Pacht  who  presides  at  the  scaffold, 

origin.     The  Egyptians,  like  all  the  fire  breaking  forth  against  her  ene- 

peoples  of  antiquity,  gave  significant  mies." 

names  to  their  own  gods,  and  dis-  2  See  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  Sup- 

tinguished  clearly  between  the  god  plement,  PL  LI.,  No.  4. 
and  his  representation. 

N 


194         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

and  also  corresponds  to  the  word  signifying  "  to  embalm." 
But  she  represents  fire  in  its  beneficent  functions,  not  as 
devastating,  but  as  conserving  and  fertilising;  nature's  im- 
manent power  of  growth,  and  also  the  fire  of  the  passion 
of  love.  In  ancient  times,  and  in  the  reigns  of  the  kings 
of  the  Bubastic  dynasty,  she  was  no  doubt  an  independent 
divine  being,  but,  like  all  the  mother-goddesses  of  Egypt, 
she  afterwards  became  identified  with  Isis  or  with  Hathor. 
With  the  latter  especially,  whose  worship  was  likewise 
accompanied  with  song  and  dance,  and  consisted  in  joyful 
festivals,  she  had  much  in  common  ;  and  Hathor,  in  her 
temple  at  Edfu,  which  had  become  the  metropolis  of  the 
worship  of  all  mother-goddesses,  is  also  called  Bast. 

Meanwhile,  the  warlike  Sechet,  as  if  vexed  by  the  pre- 
ference given  to  her  rival,  let  loose  the  miseries  of  war 
upon  the  land.  Under  the  latter  kings  of  the  twenty- 
second,  and  seemingly  also  under  those  of  the  twenty- 
third  dynasty  (a  Tanitic  one),  the  unity  of  Egypt  was 
broken  up.  Various  princes  struggled  with  each  other  for 
supremacy.  The  country  was  split  up  into  different  little 
kingdoms,  to  the  number  of  twelve  or  thirteen.  This,  of 
course,  had  the  effect  of  weakening  the  nation.  And  now 
the  descendants  of  the  Theban  high  priests  saw  an  oppor- 
tunity offered  them  of  again  bringing  the  country  entirely 
under  their  sovereignty.  Of  this  opportunity  they  at  once 
proceeded  to  take  advantage.  For  the  Ethiopian  con- 
querors, who  now  in  succession  make  Egypt  bow  to  the 
might  of  their  sword,  and  some  of  whom  even  reign  for  a 
time  and  form  an  Ethiopic  dynasty,  are,  in  truth,  no  other 
than  the  priests  of  the  Theban  Amun,  who  had  not  been 
able  to  maintain  the  royal  authority  they  usurped,  and 
had  fled  as  refugees  to  the  south.  In  Ethiopia  they  had 
founded  an  independent  kingdom,  the  capital  of  which 
was  Napata  (at  Djebel  Barkal),  which  bore  the  name  of 
Meröe,  Meru,  Merua.1     The  form  of  government  there 

1  The  Meröe  referred  to  by  Strabo     south  ;  but  the  name  of  the  village 
lav,  as  is  well  known,  more  to  the     Meraui,  in  the  Barkal,  thus  close  to 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  195 

was,  as  might  be  expected,  purely  theocratic,  like  that  of 
Egypt,  but  with  a  preponderance  of  the  priestly  element. 
The  king  himself  was  first  priest  of  Amun  ;  his  son,  the 
heir-apparent  to  the  throne,  was  second  in  rank.1  But 
although  the  successor  seems  to  have  been  thus  already 
indicated  during  the  life  of  his  father,  he  was  obliged 
nevertheless  to  submit  to  the  oracle.  The  king  was  nomi- 
nated by  the  word  of  God,  equivalent  in  this  case  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  priests,  though  as  a  rule  the  choice  seems 
to  have  fallen  upon  the  son  of  the  king  who  had  died.2 
Belioious  laws  seem  to  have  been  enforced  with  great 
strictness.  A  careful  watch  was  at  least  kept  lest  any 
unclean  foot  should  tread  the  temple  of  Amun.  A  certain 
tribe  or  sect  (the  obscurity  of  the  inscription  which  gives 
the  account  leaves  us  in  uncertainty  on  this  point)  was 
excluded  from  the  temple  of  Amun,  because  they  taught 
that  there  was  nothing  wrong  in  committing  murder.  On 
this  account  it  is  said  they  must  be  cast  into  the  fire  of 
Suti,  in  order  that  all  the  priests  and  prophets  who  ap- 
proach to  the  exalted  god  (Amun)  may  be  reverenced. 
We  see  that  even  Suti  is  named  here  as  the  god  of  aveng- 
ing righteousness.  The  gods  worshipped  in  this  Ethiopian 
kingdom  were  purely  Egyptian,  Amun-ra  in  the  first  place, 
then  Num,  the  god  of  the  waterfalls,  though  he  is  perhaps 
only  the  ram's-headed  form  of  Amun  mistaken  for  Num.3 
At  a  somewhat  more  recent  period  festivals  were  insti- 
tuted in  honour  of  Horos,  Ea,  Osiris,  and  Isis.  That  the 
Amun-worship  of   the  Ethiopian  dynasties  was   of   the 

the  site  of  Napata,  justifies  us  in  ex-  See  Mariette  in  the  Rev.  Arch.,  1865, 

tending  the  name  Meru  also  to  the  ii.  171  seq. 

older  Ethiopian  kingdom,  which  lay         3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C,  PL   IT., 

more  to  the  north.  i.  241,  calls  the  god  of  Ethiopia  Num, 

1  Lepsius,  Brief e,  p.  217.  apparently  because  he  will  not  hear 

2  The  Greeks  (Herodotus,  Diodo-  of  a  ram-headed  Amun.  It  is  cer- 
rus,  and  Strabo)  assure  us  that  the  tain  that  on  the  Ethiopian  monu- 
election  of  the  Ethiopian  kings  was  ments,  on  the  later  ones  at  aL  events, 
by  oracle.  This  is  confirmed  by  a  no  distinction  is  made  between 
stela  at  Djebel  Barkal,  on  which  it  Amun  and  Num  with  a  ram's  or  he- 
is  related  how  Asran,  son  of  the  de-  goat's  head. 

ceased  king,  was  chosen  in  this  way. 


196        HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

purified  Theban  sort,  no  longer  at  the  stage  of  nature- 
worship,  is  evident  from  a  saying  of  the  conqueror  Amun- 
meri-nut,  that  above  all  gods  he  adores  him  whose  name 
is  hidden.1  The  deeper  signification  of  the  Egyptian  reli- 
gion, transported  to  Ethiopia,  fell,  no  doubt,  in  course  of 
time  into  oblivion ;  but  the  forms  continued  to  exist  for 
centuries  just  as  they  had  been.  For  in  Ethiopia,  long 
after  the  place  of  the  descendants  of  the  Theban  priests 
had  been  taken  by  natives,  and  the  Egyptian  language 
supplanted  by  that  of  Ethiopia,  Egyptian  hieroglyphics 
were  still  used  in  writing,  and  the  gods  of  Egypt  were  still 
invoked.2 

So  early  as  in  the  reign  of  the  first  kings  of  the  dynasty 
of  Bubastis,  an  Ethiopian  prince,  Azachr-amun,  had  ven- 
tured to  attempt  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  but  he  appears  to 
have  been  unable  to  maintain  it.  One  of  his  successors 
was  more  fortunate.  This  was  Pianchi  Meriamun,  name- 
sake and  apparently  descendant  of  one  of  the  high  priests 
of  Amun,  who  still  under  the  last  of  the  Eameside  kings 
lived  at  Thebes.  The  help  of  this  king  was  sought  by  the 
Thebans  against  a  certain  Saïtic  conqueror,  Tafnecht,  father 
of  King  Bochoris  (Bok-en-ranf),  and  giving  a  ready  response 
to  this  request  he  at  once  flew  to  arms.  Thebes  seems  thus 
to  have  borne  the  supremacy  of  the  north  with  no  good  will, 
and  preferred  to  be  under  the  sceptre  of  its  former  chief 
priests  rather  than  subject  to  a  warrior  of  Lower  Egypt. 
To  describe  the  campaign  is  beyond  my  province,  it  must 
suffice  to  tell  that  Pianchi  met  with  a  joyful  reception  at 
Thebes  ;  that  Memphis,  after  an  obstinate  resistance,  was  at 
last  conquered;  and  that,  along  with  all  thfe  princes,  whether 
these  were  petty  kings  or  Libyan  commanders,  Tafnecht 
was  compelled  to  submit  to  the  warlike  priest-king,  who 
crranted  them  pardon  and  received  their  homage.     None, 

1  Mariette,  op.  cit.  163,  considers  life)    of    that   one   whose    name   is 

this  god  to  be   Osiris.     But  in  the  hidden.      This   can    only    refer    to 

continuation  it  is  said  that  the  priests  Amun. 

in  the  temple  of  Amun-ra  at  Thebes  2  Birch,  in  Lepsius'  Zeits.,  p.  61, 

bring  to  him  the  flower  anch   (the  June  1868. 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  197 

however,  of  the  conspirators,  on  the  ground  of  their  being 
unclean — and  in  this  we  notice  a  trait  characteristic  of  the 
priest-king— were  allowed  access  to  his  palace.  One  only, 
Nimrut  of  Buhastis,  related  to  the  kings  of  the  twenty- 
second  dynasty,  who  had  fully  adopted  the  Egyptian  civi- 
lisation and  religion,  was  permitted  to  approach  Pianchi, 
because  he,  in  common  with  all  orthodox  Egyptians, 
abstained  from  sea-fish.1  Pianchi  having  invoked  the 
blessings  of  Amun  at  his  installation,  and  having  likewise 
testified  his  devotion  to  all  true  Egyptian  deities,  pro- 
ceeded forthwith  to  declare  himself  ruler  of  the  North,  by 
assuming,  as  one  of  his  titles,  the  name  of  the  goddess 
whose  worship  was  at  that  time  the  prevailing  one  in 
Lower  Egypt.  He  accordingly  took  the  designation,  Pian- 
chi Meriamun  Se-Bast,  son  of  Bast.  He  paid  homage  to 
Thot,  lord  of  Hermopolis,  and  his  eight  gods,  and  next 
allowed  himself  to  be  solemnly  consecrated  as  king  at 
Memphis  and  Heliopolis,  just  as  had  without  doubt  been 
done  previously  at  Thebes. 

The  stela  from  which  all  this  information  is  derived, 
and  which  was  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  Napata,  describes 
the  consecration  in  detail.  The  solemnities  were  very 
elaborate.  They  commenced  with  an  offering  made  to 
Turn,  the  god  of  Heliopolis,  at  a  place  near  the  town,  and 
this  was  followed  by  offerings  to  other  gods,  and  amongst 
them  to  the  god  of  Memphis.  After  the  king  had  returned 
to  Cher,  the  place  where  the  first  offerings  were  made,  and 
after  he  had  there  purified  himself  in  the  Nile,  the  latter 
portion  of  the  ceremonies  was  proceeded  with.  These 
were  all  performed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  An  (Helio- 
polis). Upon  a  sort  of  sand  hill  (Shai-ka-cm-an,  the  high 
sand  at  Heliopolis),  white  cows,  milk,  incense,  and  other 
burnt- offerings  were  made  to  the  rising  sun,  and  there- 

1  The  eating  of  fish  is  frequently  all.    Yet  there  is  no  doubt  the  mixed 

forbidden  in  the  "Book  of  the  Dead.''  population  of  the  Delta,  consisting 

River  fish  might,  however,  be  eaten  mostly  of  Asiatics,  paid  no  attention 

by  any  one  except  priests,  but  sea-  to  this  prohibition,  and  even  made 

fish  was  considered  as  unclean  for  offerings  of  fish  to  the  gods. 


193        HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

after,  within  the  great  temple  itself,  two  acts  of  worship 
took  place.  The  chief  singer,  the  Her-heb,  now  sang  his 
hymn  to  the  deity.  Thus  the  king  was  duly  prepared 
and  sanctified  for  the  crowning  function  of  his  conse- 
cration. This  took  place  in  the  temple  Ha-ben-ben  (see 
p.  74,  note  i),  "the  place  of  the  two  pyramids."  There, 
was  the  holy  of  holies,  sesJiet  ur,  "  the  great  niche,"  where 
Ra  himself  dwelt,  and  where  the  two  sacred  barks  of  the 
sun  were  placed.  Before  entering,  the  king  purified  him- 
self with  incense  and  "  living  "  blood.  He  then,  like  the 
high-priest  of  Israel,  entered  alone  to  behold  the  great 
mystery.  "  He  stood  alone  there,  drew  the  bolts,  opened 
the  door,  and  looked  upon  his  father  Ra  in  Ha-ben-ben, 
with  the  two  sacred  barks  of  Ra  and  Turn." 1  The  coro- 
nation ceremony  was  thus,  in  reality,  an  act  of  initiation 
into  the  highest  religious  mysteries,  a  high-priestly  act. 
In  no  sense  could  it  be  described  as  the  consecration  of  a 
secular  prince  by  the  priests  to  the  office  of  theocratic 
king,  for  the  king  himself,  as  head  of  the  priesthood,  goes 
alone  within  the  innermost  sanctuary,  and  no  priest  is 
allowed  to  accompany  him. 

I  have  entered  into  the  particulars  of  Pianchi's  cam- 
paign more  fully  than  would  otherwise  have  been  called 
for,  because  in  its  character  it  is  religious  rather  than  poli- 
tical. Thus,  Pianchi  affirms  that  it  is  Amun  who  com- 
manded him  to  undertake  it  He  gave  instructions  to  his 
soldiers,  whom  he  did  not  accompany  from  the  beginning 
of  the  expedition,  that  so  soon  as  they  arrived  at  Thebes 
they  were  to  submit  themselves  to  a  religious  purification, 
and  to  have  their  arms  blessed  by  the  divinity,  "  for  no 
victory  comes  to  men  without  the  knowledge  of  Amun." 
And  having  been  once  sprinkled  with  water  from  the 
altar  of  Amun,  they  ought,  with  foreheads  bowed  in  the 
dust  before  his  majesty,  to  repeat  the  following  prayer : 
"  Cover  for  us  the  war-path  with  the  shadow  of  thy  sci- 
mitar; multiply  the  strength  of  the  youths  whom  thou 

1  De  Rouge",  Rev.  Arch.,  viii.  103  seq.,  1863. 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  199 

hast  called  ;  make  them  myriads."  When  Pianchi  arrives 
to  take  part  personally  in  the  straggle,  his  first  care  is  to 
celebrate  at  Thebes  a  panegyric  in  honour  of  Amun. 
Wherever  he  comes  his  attention  is  taken  np  with  temples 
and  sanctuaries,  and  in  all  the  towns  conquered  by  him 
he  levies  sums  from  the  revenues  of  the  priests,  which 
were  destined  to  be  given  as  offerings  to  the  Theban  god. 
Amun-meri-nut  likewise  causes  statues  of  gods  and  temples 
to  be  set  up  again  everywhere.  Their  restoration  to  their 
proper  power  in  the  mother  country  was,  with  the  Ethi- 
opian kings,  synonymous  with  the  re-establishment  of 
the  power  of  Amun,  and,  as  they  believed,  with  the  over- 
throw of  the  plots  of  the  blasphemers  of  Amun.  With 
the  reign  of  Pianchi  there  began  a  brief  renewal  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  south.  He  apparently  did  not  reign 
over  Egypt  to  the  end  of  his  life ;  at  least  his  sway  in 
the  country  of  the  Delta  very  soon  ceased;  but  his  in- 
road was  the  precursor  of  a  somewhat  prolonged  Ethiopian 
supremacy. 

It  is  inaccurate  to  represent  this  as  a  foreign  supremacy. 
Sabaka,  Sabataka,  and  Tahalka  (Taharka)  have  indeed 
Ethiopian  names,  but  they  are  without  doubt  of  pure 
Egyptian  extraction;  and  genuine  Egyptians  regarded  them 
rather  as  deliverers  from  a  foreign  yoke  than  as  conquerors. 
The  struggle  between  North  and  South  was  now  one  be- 
tween Sai's  and  Ethiopia.  It  was  against  Tafnecht  of  Sa'is 
that  Pianchi  had  fought.  The  son  of  Tafnecht,  Bok-en- 
ranf  (Bokchoris),  who  had  now  become  king,  was  involved 
in  a  war  with  Sabaka,  the  king  familiar  to  us  in  Israelitish 
history,  and  was  killed.  When,  at  a  later  period,  the 
Assyrian  king,  Assurbanipal,  chastised  the  petty  kingdoms 
of  Lower  Egypt,  which  his  predecessor  had  brought  into 
subjection,  and  which  had  since  then  revolted,  and  when 
he  brought  all  Egypt  into  subjection  to  himself,  he 
appointed  the  great  antagonist  of  the  Ethiopians,  Necho, 
prince  of  Sa'is,  as  his  viceroy,  who  accordingly,  as  soon  as 
the  Assyrians  had  withdrawn  to  their  own  country,  ex- 


2oo        HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

perienced  the  vengeance  of  Taharka.  It  was  a  struggle 
for  life  or  death  that  went  on  between  the  African  Meso- 
potamians,  who  continued  to  be  forced  southwards,  and 
the  Asiatic  Mesopotamians,  who  had  now  for  long  had  a 
firm  footing  in  Egypt.  The  latter  found  their  most  power- 
ful allies  in  the  Assyrians,  who  a  second  time  conquered 
Taharka,  and  forced  him  to  retire  on  Napata,  where  he 
seems  to  have  consoled  himself  by  erecting  a  temple  in 
honour  of  Ainun.  He  was  again  victor  on  one  occasion 
when,  being  called  in  by  his  former  enemies  the  Asiatic 
princes  to  help  them  against  the  Assyrians,  he  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  accomplish  their  overthrow  and  to  regain 
the  throne.  But  he  died  very  soon  after,  and  his  son, 
Eutmen,  who  succeeded,  soon  found  himself  obliged  to 
leave  Egypt  for  good. 

If  Herodotus  is  to  be  believed,  the  Ethiopian  kings,  like 
all  priest-kings,  were  mild  in  their  government.  Sabaka 
is  said  to  have  transmuted  capital  punishment  to  forced 
labour,  and  to  have  executed  many  useful  works,  especially 
canals.  It  need  hardly  be  added  that  they  restored  and 
favoured  the  Theban  worship,  and  proof  of  this  is  afforded 
by  the  monuments  in  the  ancient  city  of  Amun. 

They  made  one  other  attempt  to  regain  what  was  lost. 
Amun-meri-nut  (read  also  Amun-rut,  and  believed  to  be 
the  same  as  Urdamani  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions1) 
dreamed  a  dream  in  which  the  sovereignty  of  Egypt  and 
Kush  (Ethiopia)  was  assigned  to  him.  Like  a  good 
Egyptian,  he  perceives  in  this  a  hint  of  the  deity  himself, 
and  at  once  sets  to  work.  It  is  not  clear  whether  they 
were  Assyrians  or  native  princes  with  whom  he  fought, 
but  he  too  was  joyfully  welcomed  at  Thebes,  and  in  the 
temple  of  Amun  went  through  those  sacred  ceremonies 
which  it  was  lawful  for  the  king  alone  to  perform.  After 
an  obstinate  struggle  he  made  a  victorious  entry  into 
Memphis  likewise,  but  he  was  unable  to  hold  his  ground. 
His  son  Pianchi  II.  reigned  in  succession  to  him  in  the 

1  See  Haigh,  in  Lepsius,  Zeits.,  p.  3,  January  1S69. 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  201 

Thebaid,  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  whole  country 
had  to  bow  to  other  masters.  Since  that  time  Egypt  was 
independent  no  more,  unless  in  appearance.  The  people 
had  become  superannuated  and  their  proper  nationality  was 
lost.  It  is  true  that  the  Saïtic  kings  who  came  next  in 
succession,  although  foreigners,  did  as  much  as  they  could 
to  reinstate  the  ancient  Egyptian  civilisation,  nevertheless 
unconsciously  they  became  the  means  of  making  their 
country  the  common  property  of  the  world  by  opening  it 
up  to  the  Greeks. 

After  the  retreat  of  Amun-meri-nut,  the  kings  of  Saïs 
had  their  hands  free,  and  lost  no  time  in  seizing  upon  the 
sovereignty.  The  reigns  of  these  Nechos  and  Psamtiks, 
whose  dynasty  ended  by  being  overthrown,  or  rather  con- 
tinued by  the  lucky  conqueror,  the  genial  soldier  of 
fortune,  Amasis,  has  been  not  inappropriately  called  the 
period  of  the  Egyptian  renaissance.  At  least  it  was  the 
beginning  of  the  renaissance,  which  was  not  arrested  by 
their  fall,  but  still  went  on  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies. 
Its  initiatory  stage  dates  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  the 
kings  of  Bubastis,  who  were  not  of  purely  Egyptian  ex- 
traction. Nor  were  the  kings  of  Sa'is  purely  Egyptian; 
they  seem  to  have  belonged  to  a  Libyan  race  settled  long 
before  on  the  north-west  of  the  Delta,  but  like  the  Take- 
luts  and  Osorkons  of  Bubastis  they  had  so  completely 
adopted  the  civilisation  of  Egypt,  that  the  period  of  their 
reigns  may  be  characterised  as  a  revival  of  it,  and,  under 
their  patronage,  even  art  attained  a  relatively  high  degree 
of  splendour.  Along  with  its  civilisation  they  adopted  as 
their  own  the  entire  religious  system  of  Egypt.  Psamtik 
I.  dedicates  gifts  to  Turn  of  Heliopolis  (Ins.  discovered 
at  Pompeii),  and  promotes  the  worship  of  Ptah  at  Mem- 
phis, without  at  the  same  time  forgetting  Thebes  and 
Philak.  The  Apis  worship  was  his  peculiar  care.  It  is 
no  sooner  made  known  to  him  that  the  temple  of  "his 
father  Osiris-apis,"  the  Serapeum,  is  in  a  ruinous  condi- 
tion, than  he  issues  orders  to  have  it  fully  restored  with- 


202         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGiuW. 

out  delay.  He  also  commands  the  divine  body  of  the 
sacred  bull  that  had  died  not  long  before,  to  be  consigned 
to  the  grave  with  royal  state.  During  the  reign  of  this 
dynasty,  the  worship  of  this  dead  god,  whether  as  Ptah- 
sekru-asiri,  or  as  Asiri-hapi,  was  everywhere  zealously 
practised.  Amasis  followed  their  example  :  when  an  apis 
died  in  his  reign,  he  likewise  caused  him  to  be  interred 
with  unheard-of  magnificence.  The  sarcophagus  was  of 
rose-coloured  granite,  more  beautiful  and  larger  than 
former  ones,  and  all  the  adornments  and  sacred  amulets 
were  of  gold  and  precious  stones.  All  the  chiefs  of  the 
towns  in  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  were  invited  to  come, 
bringing  their  presents  to  the  dead  god,  and  to  take  part 
in  the  homage  paid  to  him  (Ins.  of  Amasis,  commander 
of  the  Bowmen).  The  temple  of  Ptali  at  Memphis  was 
not  overlooked,  for  it  was  enriched  by  Amasis  with  the 
most  magnificent  monuments.  The  gods  of  the  Osirian 
family  were  still  held  in  honour,  as  appears  from  a  sar- 
cophagus of  the  wife  of  Amasis  (Brit.  Mus.),  on  which 
she  is  represented  as  Hathor,  with  the  sceptres  of  Osiris 
in  her  hand.  Another  indication  is,  that  the  king  founded 
a  temple  at  Memphis  in  honour  of  Isis ;  and  lastly,  on  a 
relief  at  Silsilis,  Amasis  is  depicted  with  his  wife  Anchnes 
making  offerings  to  Amun,  Mut,  and  Chonsu-nefer-hotep, 
the  well-known  gods  of  the  now  decayed  Thebes.  Egypt 
surpasses  all  other  countries  in  conservatism.  Dynasties 
pass  and  change ;  wars  and  revolutions  threaten  to  bring 
everything  into  confusion ;  conquerors,  soldiers  without 
birth  or  breeding,  possess  themselves  of  the  supreme 
power ;  foreign  intruders  reign  for  centuries  in  succession ; 
new  forms  of  religion  and  new  names  come  to  light,  and 
even  religious  views  pass  through  many  a  change  and 
development,  but  the  ancient  and  unchangeable  comes 
always  up  again  to  the  surface,  or  at  all  events  continues 
to  exist  side  by  side  with  what  is  new,  even  though  it  be 
in  actual  conflict  with  it. 

The  worship  of  Neith,  the  goddess  of  Saïs,  which  be- 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  203 

came,  under  the  princes  of  this  dynasty,  a  prevailing  one, 
was  not  new  either.  She  had  been  worshipped  in  the 
time  of  the  first  dynasties.  Princesses  of  the  blood-royal, 
or  at  least  women  of  high  station,  held  the  office  of  high 
priestess  of  Neith  in  the  time  of  Chafra,  Sahura,  and 
others.  Even  at  that  early  time  Neith  had  the  surname 
"  of  the  northern  wall,"  Mehit  Scbti,  in  contradistinction 
to  Ptah  "  of  the  southern  wall." 1  Since  then  she  for  a 
time  fell  into  the  background,  until  the  Saïtic  kings 
brought  her  into  prominence  once  more.  The  Libyans, 
from  whom  these  kings  were  descended,  had  always  been 
worshippers  of  Keith.  On  the  monuments  of  the  earliest 
times,  in  which  they  are  found  depicted,  there  is  to  be 
seen  on  their  garments  the  emblem  peculiar  to  Neith.2  In 
Mesopotamia,  likewise,  her  name  sometimes  occurs  as  a 
constituent  part  of  the  names  of  the  queens  (Nitokris 
Nit-aker),  though  possibly  these  queens  may  have  been 
of  Egyptian  descent.  The  combined^questions,  whether 
the  Libyans  already  worshipped  Neith  previous  to  their 
arrival  in  Egypt,  or  adopted  her  worship  from  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  whether  we  ought  not  to  seek  the  origin  of 
Neith  worship  in  Assur  or  Babel  rather  than  in  Egypt, 
cannot  as  yet  be  answered  satisfactorily. 

I  cannot  prove  that  she  was  a  deity  of  the  Libyans, 
who  certainly  belonged  to  the  Hamitic  race ;  they  may 
have  adopted  her  from  the  Egyptians,  in  accordance 
with  a  strongly-marked  tendency  of  theirs.  Amun,  an- 
other certainly  Egyptian  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time 

1  See  De  Rouge,  VI.  Prem.  Dy-  with  them  by  the  Amu  under  Abisa, 
nasties,  pp.  63,  97,  109.  Among  when  they  migrated  into  Egypt  in 
these  princesses  occurs  also  a  cer-  the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  have 
tain  Anta,  an  Asiatic  name.  Does  anything  to  do  with  the  worship  of 
this  prove  that  the  worship  of  Neith  Neith  ?  The  manner  in  which  one 
was  not  a  native  one  ?  But  then  of  these  is  placed  on  the  back  of  an 
Anta  was  a  priestess  of  Hathor  as  ass  would  lead  one  to  think  so.  It 
well.  is  to  be  noted  that  under  the  Old 

2  See  Ebers,  iEgypten  u.  d.  BB.  Kingdom  the  symbol  of  Neith  is  two 
Mos.,  p.  108.  The  emblem  of  arrows  crossed,  corresponding  to  the 
Neith    was    apparently    a    shuttle,  emblem  of  Seti. 

Can   the   gigantic  shuttles  brought 


204         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Asiatic  Mesopotamia!!  god,  had  become  their  chief  god. 
Another  Berber  god,  Gurzil,  betrays  his  Mesopotamian 
origin  by  the  termination  of  his  name,  which  recals  the 
Hebrew  e^god.1  In  some  of  the  sculptures  on  their  rude 
monuments  it  has  likewise  been  thought  possible  to  dis- 
cern traces  of  Egyptian  influence.2  And  so  there  would 
be  nothing  wonderful  in  their  having  adopted  the  worship 
of  Neith  also,  who,  so  far  as  I  can  see  just  now,  can  be 
regarded  only  as  a  true  Egyptian  goddess,  though  related 
to  other  Mesopotamian  forms  of  religion. 

The  proper  signification  of  Neith  is  not  easy  to  define. 
There  is  no  doubt  she  is  a  mother  goddess,  for  she  is  fre- 
quently called  mother  of  the  gods  and  divine  mother. 
Sometimes  too  she  is  united  with  Anka,  who,  as  we  saw 
(p.  132),  signifies  the  fruitful  mother-earth.  She  is  closely 
related  likewise  to  the  Theban  mother  of  the  gods,  Mat 
or  Mut,  and  not  unfrequently  is  confounded  with  her  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  Neith  is  distinguished  from  Anka  and 
Mut  by  being  a  virgin  goddess.  This  is  expressed  in  the 
words  inscribed  on  her  temple,  "  My  garment  no  one  has 
lifted  up,"  which  is  immediately  followed  by,  "  The  fruit 
that  I  have  borne  is  the  sun."  3  She  is  thus  the  virgin 
mother  of  the  sun,  and  combines  in  herself  what  is  usually 
among  the  Egyptians,  as  well  as  among  the  Phoenicians, 
Assyrians,  and  other  kindred  peoples,  separated  into  two 
persons.     The  sun  here  signifies  the  highest  sun-god,  as 

1  Prof.  M.  de  Goeje,  De  Berbers  me-nt,  L'age  clu  bronze,  p.  271,  all 
in  De  Gids,  Juli  1867,  p.  30  et  seq.  the  symbols    met    with    in    North 

2  Barth,  Discoveries  and  Travels,  Africa  are  of  Semitic  origin.  This 
i.  1 74,  describes  a  relief  which  author  has,  however,  a  habit  of  re- 
shows  a  considerable  amount  of  ar-  garding  facts  always  in  the  light  of 
tistic  skill.    Upon  it  are  represented  his  own  theories. 

two    warriors,    apparently    gods    in  3  The  whole  inscription  as  given 

human    form,     but    with    heads    of  by    Proclus    who    is   more    accurate 

beasts.      One  of  these  heads  is  much  than   Plutarch,   is   as    follows  : — Td 

like  an   ibis,  the  other  is  very  like  ovra,  Kal  t<x  ècrófiepa,  /ecu  ra  yeyovóra 

the   head  of   Set.     Like   the  Egyp-  èyd)    el/xi.       Tbv  ê/xbv   \irQva    ovdeïs 

tians,   the  Berber  youths  ,wore   the  cnreKa\v\pev,    du   èyCo  Kapiröv  ëreicov, 

single   lock  of  hair  depending  from  r/XLos  èyévero.      (Comp.    De   Rouge, 

the   right  side.     Barth,    op.   cit.  iii.  Rev.  Arch.,  1 851,  i.  58-60.) 
243.     According   to   P.    de   Rouge- 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  205 

the  Creator  who  also  has  created  himself  without  a  father. 
These  are  all  so  many  attempts  of  the  symbolic  mysti- 
cism to  personify  the  ever-productive  but  always  pure 
nature-power  whence  everything  derives  its  origin.  Hence 
at  the  commencement  of  the  same  inscription  it  is  said, 
"  I  am  what  is,  what  shall  be,  and  what  has  been,"  and 
still  more  clearly  as  follows  :  "  The  great  productive  mother 
of  Ea,  who  is  a  first-born  child,  and  who  is  not  begotten 
but  brought  forth  "  (Ins.  of  Uza-hor-penres,  son  of  Pefanit, 
priest  of  JSTeith  at  Saïs).  "What  Neith  represents  is  not 
nature  as  such,  not  inert  matter,  as  some  have  asserted  ;* 
for  I  cannot  regard  this  as  other  than  the  transference  to 
Egyptian  ground  of  the  later  pantheistic  speculations  of 
foreigners;  but  she  is  the  eternal  deepest  ground  of  all 
things  symbolised  as  the  divine  mother-maid.  Only  when 
regarded  in  this  light  is  it  possible  to  say  that  she  is 
"  Commandress  of  all  gods,"  and  that  there  is  "  no  second 
beside  her"  (Ins.  on  the  tomb  of  Titi  at  Thebes). 

In  reality  there  is  no  one  of  the  Egyptian  gods  quite 
like  her.  Her  attributes  are  transferred  to  other  goddesses, 
but  they  all  reproduce  only  one  side  of  the  double  being 
that  we  find  in  Keith.  With  all  its  mystic  awkwardness 
this  conception  is  still  one  of  the  highest  and  most  exalted 
in  Egyptian  theology.  Neith  was  also  originally,  no  doubt, 
like  all  the  other  deities  of  Northern  Egypt,  a  personifica- 
tion of  the  heavenly  fire.  She  represented  the  cosmic  fire, 
hidden,  mysterious,  to  which  all  that  is  owes  its  existence. 
She  is  the  same  goddess  as  the  virgin  mother  of  Western 
Asia  whom  the  Greeks,  not  without  reason,  compared  to 
their  Athena. 

Mysticism  found  in  all  this,  wide  scope  for  its  fantastic 
play.    I  shall  cite  only  one  example.    In  a  magic  papyrus2 

1  This  idea  owes  its  origin  to  the  matière  inerte,  le  milieu  sans  vie  au  sein 

Egyptian  view  in  which  the  female  duquel   la    generation   s'était   operée, 

principle  was  purely  passive.  Maury,  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  i.  1 89,  Sept. 

in  other  respects   distinguished  for  1 867. 

his  knowledge  of  ancient  religions,  2  Pap.    Mag.     825,    Brit.    Mus., 

holds  Neith,  after  Mariette,  as  the  transl.  by  Birch,  p.  15. 


2o6         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

the  house  of  Osiris  is  found  on  a  pedestal,  which  is  the 
emblem  of  truth.  Beneath  it  is  an  oval,  bearing  the  name 
of  Keith  as  goddess  of  foreign  peoples.  In  front  of  the 
house  stands,  "  O  thou  who  daily  art  hidden ! "  on  the 
sides,  "Very  hidden,  very  secret."  At  the  corners  are 
placed  the  names  of  Hor,  Thot,  Isis,  and  Nephthys.  Then 
follows  the  description,  "  I  have  opened  the  heaven  and 
the  earth."  The  house  is  thus  the  universe — u  I  am  the 
seat  of  Neith,  hidden  in  the  hidden,  covered  in  the  covered, 
barred  into  the  barred,  unknown  I  am  knowledge.  .  .  . 
I  am  the  one  who  is  hid  in  the  flame  that  never  ceases  to 
burn ;  heaven  is  shut  up  and  the  waters  are  enclosed  :  where 
the  waters  rage,  there  the  flame  is  still  .  .  .  the  abode 
of  ISTeith  is  on  the  throat  of  Nunhur,  the  god  of  Tenu 
(Thinis) ."  The  last  reference  is  sufficiently  obscure,  but  it 
is  clear  that  Neith  is  called  the  very  hidden  one  because 
she  is  the  deepest  ground  of  things,  and  the  legend  of  her 
veiled  statue,  so  finely  reproduced  by  Schiller,  is  true  to 
her  essential  character.  She  hence  became  goddess  of  the 
most  profound  science  and  wisdom,  usually  with  the  epithet 
of  aker,  "  the  wise,  the  learned ; "  and  thus  the  Greeks 
could  very  well  compare  her  to  Athena,  whose  very  name 
has  indeed  been  regarded  as  a  transposition  of  hers.  Like 
Athena,  Neith  was  also  a  warlike  soddess ;  it  was  she 
always  who  kept  the  land  of  Egypt  safe  from  the  bar- 
barians by  means  of  her  northern  wall.  The  name  which 
she  derived  from  this  wall  was  in  more  modern  times  still 
so  usual  that  we  find  it  even  at  Tyre  (Ins.  discovered  by 
Eenan).  This  likewise  would  account  for  her  being  often 
combined  with  Ptah,  the  god  of  the  southern  wall,  though 
Sechet  was  his  proper  consort.  Her  worship  was  closely 
connected  with  that  of  Osiris,  and  the  tomb  of  this  benefi- 
cent god  was  shown  in  her  temple.  To  connect  thus  the 
hidden  deity  of  the  under- world  and  the  hidden  deepest 
ground  of  all  things,  is  evidently  natural  enough.  She 
was  represented  either  in  human  shape  or  in  that  of  a 
cow  lying  down,  and  in  both  forms  has  a  disk  of  gold 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  207 

between  horns,  and  her  head  and  neck  adorned  with  gold, 
and  draped  with  a  mantle  of  purple.  As  to  this,  however, 
she  does  not  differ  in  any  way  from  Isis,  Hath  or,  and  the 
other  Egyptian  mother-goddesses. 

In  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  and  Caesars,  the  attributes 
of  Neith  were  imputed  to  Isis,  the  Isis  whom  the  Roman 
ladies  and  even  the  young  girls  worshipped  with  a  zeal 
which  the  law  forbidding  foreign  superstitions  was  power- 
less to  check. 

So  great  is  the  attraction  which  the  mysterious  and  in- 
explicable has  for  the  religious  spirit,  that  we  find  these 
ancient  nature  myths  reviving  in  the  form  of  legends  and 
of  dogmas  in  religions  with  whose  spirit  they  harmonise 
least,  and  this  long  after  the  character  of  the  nature  gods 
has  been  forgotten,  and  the  religions  to  which  they  belong 
are  fallen  into  oblivion.  This  is  especially  the  case  when 
such  myths  appeal  to  sentiment,  and  when  they  combine 
in  offering  to  the  contemplation  of  humanity  the  two 
objects  which  are  the  most  graceful  and  touching  in 
nature,  but  which  in  nature  are  never  united  in  one — a 
happy  mother  and  a  pure  young  maiden. 

The  town  and  temple  of  Saïs  were  extolled  by  foreigners 
like  Herodotus  on  account  of  their  great  magnificence. 
The  fragments  of  that  magnificence  are  now  scattered  far 
and  wide.     The  splendid  naos  (the  holy  of  holies),  hewn 
from  a  single  stone,  and  dedicated  as  a  gift  by  Amasis,  is 
now  at  Paris.     On  the  monuments  two  sacred  spots   at 
Saïs  are  principally  referred  to.     One  is  "  the  great  dis- 
tinguished,"  or  "  double  great "   {cm  ur),  apparently  the 
large  fish-pond  mentioned  also  by  the  Greek  historian,  and 
which  served  as  the  arena  for  the  spectacle  of  the  great 
mysteries  of  the  Osiris  myth ;  the  other  is  the  chen,  the 
innermost  or  hidden,  apparently  the  tomb  of  Osiris,  the 
site  of  which  was  on  the  back  of  the  wall  adjoining  the 
sanctuary  of  Neith.     Her  offerings  consisted  principally 
of  sheep.     In  the  usual  representation  of  the  goddess,  she 
has  a  human  form,  and  the  crown  of  Lower  Egypt  on  her 


2o8         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

head.  If,  however,  we  accept  the  sarcophagus  described 
by  Herodotus  as  that  of  the  daughter  of  Mycerinus,  as 
being  an  image  of  Neith,  she  bore  in  her  temple  at  Saïs 
the  form  of  a  cow,  ornamented  in  the  way  already  described. 
In  front  of  this  image  there  always  stood  an  altar  with  an 
offering  of  incense,  and  a  lamp  kept  perpetually  alight. 
Such  a  representation  corresponds  well  with  the  nature  of 
the  goddess,  for  the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Hapi 
Bull,  living  image  of  the  sun-god,  was  likewise  among  the 
dogmas  of  Egyptian  theology.  On  one  particular  night  of 
the  year,  the  festival  of  lamps  was  celebrated  in  honour 
of  Neith.  On  this  occasion  all  Egypt  was  lighted  with 
lamps  filled  with  oil  and  salt  and  having  a  floating  wick, 
and  these  burnt  the  whole  night  through.  A  number  of 
pilgrims  resorted  then  also  to  Saïs,  to  be  present  at  and 
take  part  in  the  great  solemnity.  The  festival  had  re- 
ference to  the  never-dying  light  of  the  sun.  The  temple 
at  Saïs,  like  most  of  the  principal  Egyptian  ones,  had 
become  a  pantheon.  There,  in  addition  to  the  worship  of 
Neith  in  two  forms,  corresponding  to  her  double  nature, 
homage  was  paid  to  Selk  the  scorpion  goddess,  Ma  the 
goddess  of  truth,  Isis,  Seti,  Nephthys,  and  Suben  the 
goddess  of  fertility  and  of  victory,  and  to  the  masculine 
gods,  Thot,  lord  of  Sesennu,  Seb,  the  father  of  the  gods, 
Osiris,  with  the  crown  of  Upper  Egypt,  Chem,  with  the 
double  crown,  Anubis  and  Horos,  each  in  two  different 
forms,  and  finally,  Chepra  the  sun-god,  as  creator.  These 
are  all  gods  belonging  to  the  Osirian  circle,  or  who  express 
one  aspect  of  the  goddess's  nature. 

JSTeith  retained  her  supremacy  longer  than  the  kings 
who  paid  her  such  high  honours,  for  in  the  time  of  the 
Persian  conquest  she  was  still  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
deities,  and  her  fame  was  afterwards  spread  far  beyond 
the  confines  of  Egypt. 

The  great  catastrophe  that  brought  Egypt  into  subjec- 
tion to  an  altogether  foreign  race  brought  about  at  first 
no  alteration  in  the  religion  of  the  country.     This  was 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  209 

owing  principally  to  a  high  officer  of  state  who  was  a 
zealous  worshipper  of  Keith.  This  was  Uza-hor-penres, 
son  of  Pefanit,  priest  of  that  goddess,  and  apparently  also 
himself  one  of  her  priests.  In  the  calamity  that  had 
befallen  the  country,  this  man  bestirred  himself  to  save 
what  it  was  still  possible  to  keep.  He  managed  to  gain 
the  confidence  of  Cambyses,  the  Persian  conqueror,  who 
assumed  the  Egyptian  name  Eamesut,  and  obtained  for 
himself  the  appointment  of  principal  counsellor  to  the 
king.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  give  the  king  an 
idea  of  the  great  importance  attaching  to  the  worship 
of  the  Sai'tic  goddess.1  He  complained  that  the  temple 
was  desecrated  by  having  foreign  troops  quartered  in  it. 
Cambyses  gave  ear  to  the  counsels  and  complaints  of  his 
Egyptian  minister.  He  ordered  the  temple  to  be  purified, 
and  another  place  of  encampment  to  be  selected  for  the 
troops,  whose  dwellings  within  the  temple  were  to  be 
destroyed.  Moreover,  he  caused  the  ranks  of  the  priest- 
hood to  be  filled  up,  and  issued  orders  that  offerings  should 
be  made  regularly,  and  the  festivals  celebrated  at  their 
proper  time;  and  he  did  all  this  "because  he  had  charged 
Uza-hor-penres  to  make  known  to  him  the  greatness  of 
Sa'is."  It  would  thus  appear  that  Cambyses  himself  had 
made  inquiry  about  the  chief  religion  of  his  new  province. 
He  went  still  further ;  for  when  he  came  to  Saïs  he  had 
himself  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  goddess,  and 
performed  in  her  temple  all  the  ceremonies  gone  through 
there  in  former  times  by  all  the  Egyptian  kings — all  the 
good  ones,  innocently  adds  the  zealous  priest  of  Neitli. 
Following  their  example,  Cambyses  instituted  a  litany 
for  the  lord  of  eternity  (Osiris),  in  the  innermost  sanc- 
tuary of  the  temple  of  the  goddess. 

1  The  theological  lessons  given  to  quarters  of  heaven,  "  which  are  the 

the  king  by  Uza-hor-penres  took  in  abyss    where    the    gods    settle,"    of 

more  ground,  and  dealt  not  only  with  which   last    particular    the    warlike 

the  service  in  the  various  temples  of  Achemenide     had    very    likely    no 

Neith,  but  also  with  all  the  gods  and  clearer  conception  than  any  of  us  at 

goddesses  worshipped  at  Saïs,  and  this  moment, 
the  four  divine  abodes  in  the  four 


2io         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Very  soon,  however,  there  came  a  change.  Carnbyses, 
who  at  first  had  ruled  Egypt  with  such  moderation,  and 
had  even  publicly  displayed  his  reverence  for  the  national 
religion,  became  a  desecrator  of  temples  and  a  tyrant. 
This  change  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to'  any  violent  religious 
bias,  but  must  simply  have  resulted  from  the  disappoint- 
ments brought  upon  himself  by  the  monarch's  own  folly 
and  imprudence.  Three  hostile  expeditions  which  he  had 
simultaneously  planned  were  totally  unsuccessful.  The 
first,  against  the  Carthaginians,  had  to  be  abandoned 
because  the  Phoenicians  refused  to  fight  against  people  of 
their  own  race.  The  other  two  were  actually  attempted. 
Without  any  knowledge  of  the  districts  to  be  traversed, 
without  sufficient  provision  for  the  long  journey,  he  set 
out  in  person  with  an  army  against  the  Ethiopians ;  and 
another  army  was  despatched  by  him  to  the  oasis  of  Am- 
nion, to  bring  its  inhabitants  into  subjection  to  his  autho- 
rity. Carnbyses  was  obliged  to  return  without  effecting 
anything,  and  the  troops  sent  to  the  oasis  were  completely 
buried  beneath  the  sand.  After  this  the  fury  of  Carnbyses 
knew  no  bounds.  Immediately  on  his  return  to  Thebes 
he  destroyed  many  monuments.  At  Memphis  it  was 
worse  still ;  for  there,  rejoicings  happened  to  be  going  on 
on  account  of  the  birth  of  a  new  Apis,  and  in  his  madness 
Carnbyses  imagined  that  the  subject  of  their  celebration 
was  his  defeat.  He  accordingly  had  the  governors  of  the 
town  put  to  death,  and  he  wounded  the  sacred  Apis. 
Having  penetrated  into  the  sanctuary  of  Ptah,  he  mocked 
the  dwarfish  image  of  the  god,  and  burnt  the  statues  of 
the  Kabirs.  The  grief  and  horror  that  now  filled  the 
whole  of  Egypt  may  be  imagined.  Such  sacrilege  was 
unheard  of.  Uza-hor  bears  witness  that  a  calamity  like 
this  had  never  before  happened.  His  own  painful  experi- 
ence made  the  learned  scribe  forget  that  in  the  religious 
history  of  his  people  there  were  pages  darker  still.  Saïs 
seems  to  have  escaped  the  fury  of  the  tyrant ;  and  if  it 
really  did,  it  was  indebted  for  its  immunity  to  its  distin- 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  211 

guislied  citizen  Uza-hor,  who  could  testify,  "  I  was  a  good 
citizen  of  my  town ;  I  saved  the  inhabitants  in  the  great 
calamity  that  fell  upon  the  whole  country." 

But  happier  days  were  in  store.     No  sooner  had  the 
great  Darius  ascended  the  throne  than  he  proved  to  be,  in 
regard  to  Egypt,  a  mild  and  intelligent  ruler.     He  com- 
manded Uza-hor-penres,  who  again  brought  the  religious 
interest  of  his  fellow-subjects  under  the  king's  considera- 
tion, to  regulate  everything  throughout  the  country,  and 
to  restore  the  order  (the  signification  of  the  original  word 
is  doubtful)  of  scribes,  and  "  the  names  of  all  gods,  their 
temples,  their  offerings,  the  celebration  of  their  festivals 
for  all  time  coming."     In  the  oasis  of  Thebes  (Wah-el- 
Kardjeh)  he  caused  a  temple  to  be  built  in  honour  of 
Amun,  the  god  by  whose  name  he  had  called  himself  in 
his  character  of  Egyptian  prince  (Ra-amun-meri  or  Meri- 
amun-ra).     And  when  the  Egyptians  had  risen  in  revolt 
against    his    arbitrary   viceroy   Aryandes.  or   Oryandros 
(Ariyaramna  ?)   he  restored  peace  again,  and  won  their 
hearts  by  offering  a  hundred  talents  for  a  new  Apis,  the 
old  one  having  just  died.     This  incident  is  very  charac- 
teristic of  the  Egyptian  people,  to  whom  their  religion 
was  all  in  all.     Despotism   had  driven  them  to  the  ex- 
tremity of  revolt,  and  they  had  taken  up  arms  to  cast  off 
the  foreign  yoke;  but  the  gift  of  a  new  sacred  animal 
suffices  to  bring  them  to  reason,  and  to  make  them  wil- 
lingly place  upon  their  necks  again  the  yoke  they  had 
wished  to  break  off.     Simple  as  we  may  be  tempted  to 
think  them,  a  people  that  could  be  held  in  check  by  such 
means  stands  higher  than  the  people  of  Eome,  who  were 
willing  to  bear  every  extreme  of  tyranny  so  long  as  they 
were  kept  supplied  with  food  and  sports  {jpanem  d  cir- 
censes). 

This  is  the  proper  place  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 
temple  of  Amun  in  the  oasis  Sivah,  to  which  Cambyses 
had  despatched  his  fruitless  expedition,  and  which,  world- 
famous  as   it  had  long  been,  appears   now  for  the  first 


212         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

time  distinctly  in  Egyptian  history.1  This  sanctuary, 
whose  oracle  was  consulted  far  and  wide,  lay  deep  in  the 
wilderness,  eight  days'  journey  from  the  Cyrenean  coast 
and  twelve  from  Memphis.  Its  seclusion  and  mysteri- 
ousness  gave  it  a  great  reputation  for  sanctity,  although 
in  ambiguity  it  differed  in  no  respect  from  other  oracles. 
The  "  Ammonite  crookedness "  {a^fxcaviaKr]  aTrdrrj)  was 
sportively  said  to  be  derived  from  the  twisted  horns  that 
ornamented  the  ram-heacled  god.  As  to  the  foundation 
of  the  oracle,  we  have  nothing  but  myths  and  legends. 
The  Theban  priests  of  Amun  told  Herodotus  a  tale  about 
two  prophetesses  stolen  by  the  Phoenicians,  one  of  whom 
was  sold  into  Libya  and  the  other  into  Hellas ;  the 
former  founded  the  oracle  of  Amun,  the  latter  that  at 
Dodona.  The  Greeks  relate  the  same  tale  of  two  black 
doves.  This  much  is  evident,  that  the  colony  in  the 
oasis  of  Amun  was  an  Egyptian  one  and  went  thither 
from  Thebes.  According  to  Diodorus  (iii.  yi  et  seq.), 
Dionysus  is  said  to  have  founded  the  oracle  of  his  father 
Ammon,  when  the  latter  was  "  expelled  from  the  king- 
dom," and  had  foretold  to  his  son  that  he  would  be  victo- 
rious. This  would  lead  one  to  infer  that  the  colony 
consisted  of  people  who  had  been  banished  ;  and,  if  so, 
it  could  have  happened  only  at  one  of  two  periods  in 
Egyptian  history, — either  at  the  time  of  Chunaten's 
(Amenophis  IV.)  persecution  of  the  worshippers  of  Amun, 
or  at  the  time  when  the  Theban  priests  of  Amun  took 

1  The  account  of  Bokchoris  (24th  cocks  ;  after  which  he  is  accordingly 

dynasty),  who  is  said  to  have  con-  said  to  have  been  defeated  by  Carian 

suited  this  oracle  in  the  8th  century  soldiers  wearing  cocks'  feathers  on 

B.C.,  is   part  of  the  apocryphal  sys-  their    helmets.       Var.    Hist.,    7,    3, 

tem  which  makes  the  exodus  of  the  quoted  by  Parthey,  Das  Orakel  unci 

Jews  take  place  in  his  reign  (Lysim.  die     Oase    des    Ammon.    Abhandl. 

in  Joseph,  c.  Ap.,  i.  34;  Tacit.  Hist.,  der  Phil.  Hist.  KI.  der  Berl.  Aka- 

v.  3),   and  is  consequently  worth  as  demie,    1862,   p.    158.      The    oracle 

little  as  this  fable  itself.     There   is  may   quite  well  have  existed  in  the 

a  better  foundation   for    the    story,  reign  of  Bokchoris.     In  Greece  and 

that  one  of  the  opponents  of  Psam-  Asia    Minor,    it    was    already   very 

tik  L,  called  Tementhes  (Taf necht?),  famous.     It  is  well  known  to  have 

consulted  the  oracle  of  Amun  and  been  consulted  by  Croesus,  and  it  is 

received  a   warning    to   beware    of  celebrated  in  Pindar's  song. 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  213 

refuge  in  Ethiopia.  The  former  would  be  the  more 
probable.  These,  however,  are  no  more  than  conjectures. 
The  deciphering  of  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  and 
especially  of  the  royal  cartouches  observed  in  the  temple 
Omm-beidah,  one  of  the  sanctuaries  of  the  oasis,  would  be 
more  likely  to  throw  light  on  the  subject.  In  any  case, 
these  inscriptions  and  cartouches  prove  that  the  temple 
and  colony  were  purely  Egyptian,  and  always  remained 
in  connection  with  that  kinodom  ;  although,  according  to 
Herodotus,  the  oasis  formed  an  independent  state  under 
its  own  rulers.  The  fact  of  the  language  now  spoken 
there  being  no  longer  Egyptian  but  a  Berber  dialect,  is 
not  a  strong  argument  against  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the 
colony,  for  we  see  nearly  the  same  thing  in  the  case  of 
Meröe ;  and  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  the  language  of  the 
oasis  of  Ammon  was,  according  to  him,  midway  between 
Egyptian  and  Ethiopian.1 

The  god  worshipped  in  the  temple  of  the  oasis  was  the 
same  who,  was  worshipped  in  Ethiopia,  Amun  with  the 
ram's  head.  His  image  is  found  in  the  temple  of  Omm- 
beidah.  Thus  Alexander,  when  he  clothed  himself  as 
Amun,  wore  horns  on  his  head  (Dhu-1-karnaïn).  Mention 
is  made,  however,  of  another  image,  namely,  a  cone  (um- 
bilicus) set  with  gems,  one  of  those  representations  that 
are  found  most  frequently  in  Phoenician  temples.  This 
may  have  been  the  local  Libyan  way  of  representing  the 
god  whom  the  Libyans  worshipped  in  common  with  the 
Egyptians.2  Within  this  temple,  as  in  that  of  Sa'is,  a 
lamp  was  kept  perpetually  burning,  as  emblem  of  the 
never-dying  light.      The  oracle  was  given  not  in  words 

1  Parthey,  op.  cit.,  p.  149  et  seq.  a  ram's  head,  but  it  has  long  been 

2  In  the  opinion  of  Parthey,  op.  proved  that  this  was  one  of  Amun's 
cit.,  p.  137,  the  Greeks  gave  the  symbols  as  well.  In  the  same  way 
name  of  Amun  to  the  god  of  the  Hathor,  Isis,  Neith,  all  had  a  cow's 
oasis  by  mistake,  because  images  of  head;  Osiris  and  Ptah  both  had  the 
Amun  have  never  a  ram's  head,  and  dud-symbol  ;  Horos  Ra  and  Munt, 
it  must  have  been  in  reality  Chnum.  the  sparrow-hawk's  head  ;  and  the 
To  this  we  cannot  assent.  Parthey's  crocodile  is  the  sacred  animal  of 
idea  arises  from  Wilkinson's  opinion  Sebak  as  well  as  of  Set. 

that  Chnum  alone  is  depicted  with 


214         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

but  in  genuine  Egyptian  fashion,  by  signs  and  emblems, 
which,  however,  were  duly  translated  into  words  by  the 
priests.  Very  renowned  too,  in  ancient  times,  was  the 
fountain  dedicated  to  the  sun,  or  perhaps  merely  called 
after  the  sun  by  reason  of  its  varying  temperature. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  end  of  the  history  of  the 
Egyptian  religion  in  so  far  as  it  is  comprised  within  the 
limits  I  have  laid  down  for  myself.  Egypt  managed  for 
a  short  while  to  evade  the  dominion  of  Persia,  continuing 
for  half  a  century  longer  to  be  ruled  by  its  own  kings, 
who,  as  the  monuments  they  left  behind  them  show, 
followed  in  everything  the  former  national  kings,  protect- 
ing and  paying  homage  to  the  national  religion  of  Mem- 
phis, Hermopolis,  and  Thebes.  The  Persians  then  became 
masters  of  the  land,  to  be  succeeded  in  turn  by  the  Greeks. 
In  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  Egypt  was,  it  is  true,  inde- 
pendent, but  its  development  was  arrested.  In  spite  of 
the  magnificent  and,  in  some  respects,  beautiful  temples 
that  were  founded  or  restored,  a  decline  is  very  evident. 
The  period  is  indeed  one  of  the  highest  importance  in  the 
history  of  religion,  but  it  is  so  because  it  belongs  to  the 
new  era  that  was  just  dawning,  the  era  of  universalism. 
The  be^innim?  of  the  formation  of  this  ereat  era  is  visible 
at  the  period  to  which  we  have  now  come,  not  in  Egypt 
only  but  everywhere.  Pieligions  begin  to  melt  into  each 
other.  Not  only  do  peoples  adopt  from  each  other  gods 
and  customs,  which  then  take  their  place  in  the  system  of 
their  national  religion,  becoming  in  the  process  entirely 
modified,  but  foreign  religions  are  introduced  simply  and 
without  alteration.  The  oasis  of  Amun  became  the 
means  of  spreading  the  worship  of  the  Theban  god  through 
the  whole  of  Africa  and  Greece,  and  it  therefore  is  very 
appropriately  placed  at  the  end  of  my  historical  review ; 
for  it  was  precisely  the  worship  of  the  ram-headed  god 
in  the  Libyan  wilderness  that  paved  the  way  to  the  new 
era.  Amun,  who  does  not  seem  to  have  penetrated  as  far 
as  to  the  Eomans,  was  followed  by  Isis,  with  Harpokrates 


FALL  OF  THEBES  TO  THE  PERSIAN  CONQUEST.  215 

and  Serapis,  whose  worship,  especially  in  Italy,  was  prose- 
cuted with  a  zeal  amounting  to  fanaticism.  But  not  only 
did  forms  of  religion  extend,  the  religions  themselves  were 
intermingled.  Egypt  was,  for  the  West,  the  true  home  of 
this  intermixture,  and  Alexandria  was  its  centre.  There 
Hellenic,  Jewish,  and  Egyptian  elements  fermented 
through  each  other.  That  which  resulted  from  this 
fermentation  exercised  afterwards,  when  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  began  to  spread  abroad  from  Palestine,  a  deciding 
influence  on  the  doctrine  and  institutions  of  the  new 
world-religion,  and  traces  of  this  are  still  in  existence. 
Interesting,  however,  as  this  period  is,  and  attractive  as 
the  study  of  it  would  be,  it  belongs  not  to  the  ancient  but 
in  reality  already  to  the  history  of  the  new  religion,  to 
which  it  forms  the  introduction,  and  consequently  lies 
outside  my  sphere.  It  only  remains  for  me  now,  to  give, 
in  some  general  remarks  on  the  character  of  the  Egyptian 
religion  and  its  relation  to  morality,  the  state,  and  art,  a 
summary  of  our  investigations. 


(      216      ) 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

CHARACTER    AND    MORAL    RESULTS    OF    THE 
EGYPTIAN   RELIGION. 

To  grasp  aright  the  character  of  the  Egyptian  religion, 
we  must  first  of  all  seek  an  explanation  of  the  two  great 
phenomena  which  it  at  once  presents  to  the  observation 
of  the  student.  These  phenomena  consist  of  two  great 
contrasts,  which  to  the  superficial  observer  appear  enig- 
matical, though  in  reality  they  are  not  so  difficult  of  ex- 
planation. In  the  Egyptian  religion  we  find  character- 
istic qualities  conjoined,  apparently  mutually  exclusive, 
but  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  seeming  to  be  not  irreconcil- 
able, while  they  may  also  be  shown  to  be  logically  capable 
of  co-existing  in  the  same  system.  In  all  that  the  monu- 
ments tell  us  about  the  beliefs  of  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
two  things  may  be  clearly  observed:  first,  a  vivid  con- 
sciousness of  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  deity  combined 
with  coarsely  sensuous  representations  of  the  various 
gods;  secondly,  a  no  less  vivid  consciousness  of  the 
oneness  of  God  conjoined  with  the  greatest  diversity  of 
divine  persons.1 

1  This  is  very  truly  brought  out  the  shades  of  the  dead  were  imper- 

by   Chabas    (Rev.    Arch.,    1862,    v.  ceptibly    bound    by    one    immense 

p.  273)  as  follows  :  "In  contemplat-  chain  to  innumerable  deities  repre- 

ing  the  doctrines  of  ancient  Egypt,  senting  the  special  modes  of  being, 

we  are  seized  with  a  kind  of  giddi-  the  forms  and  the  will  of  the  univer-' 

ness    like   one   on    the    verge   of   a  sal  being  in  whom  the  whole  centres, 

fathomless   abyss.      No   mythology  As  a  whole  it  constitutes  a  special 

has  ever  possessed  so  great  a  store  kind  of  pantheism,  to  define  which 

of   fantastical  and   complex   myths  exactly  would  require  a  science  more 

engrafted  on  a  simple  principle  like  advanced  than  ours."    I  do  not  hold 

that  of  monotheism.      In  this  sys-  myself  responsible  for  this  author's 

tern  it  would  appear  as  if  man  and  expression,  "pantheism,"  which,  it 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.  217 

The  explanation  of  these  phenomena  has  been  sought 
in  the  supposition  of  a  double  theology  among  the  Egyp- 
tians, an  esoteric  and  an  exoteric, — the  one  being  intended 
for  the  learned,  and  known  to  them  alone  and  to  a  chosen 
few,  but  kept  carefully  concealed  from  the  multitude ; 
the  other  being  intended  for  the  people,  who  thus  had  the 
husk  given  to  them  while  the  kernel  was  kept  out  of  their 
reach.  Or,  in  plain  words,  the  priests  allowed  the  ignorant 
multitude  to  persevere  in  their  superstitions,  while  they 
themselves  knew  better,  and  attached  not  the  slightest 
value  to  all  the  sensuous  representations  and  usages. 
This  is,  however,  an  utterly  baseless  opinion, — a  mere 
fancy  of  modern  times.  In  Egypt,  as  everywhere  else 
and  in  all  periods,  there  were  cultured  and  uncultured, 
educated  and  uneducated,  people.  The  latter  never  got 
beyond  the  visible  symbol,  and  were,  as  a  rule,  satisfied 
with  the  external  form  ;  the  former  penetrated  deeper,  and 
followed  up  the  thoughts  that  were  latent  in  the  symbols. 
Yet  they,  too,  attached  a  certain  value  to  the  visible  em- 
blems, to  the  forms  of  religion,  to  its  ceremonies  and 
customs.  They  valued  the  forms  because  of  the  ideas  to 
which  they  gave  outward  expression,  but  they  were  not 
in  a  condition  to  emancipate  themselves  from  these  forms. 
There  is  no  trace  of  their  having  designedly  kept  their 
deeper  interpretations  hidden.  The  contrary  is  the  case. 
The  hieroglyphic  writing,  though  not  so  plain  as  the 
Eoman  alphabet,  was  not  a  mode  of  secret  writing.  All 
the  pictures  with  which  the  walls  of  their  public  buildings 
were  covered  were  accompanied  by  texts  explanatory  of 
the  subjects  depicted.  The  books  in  which  they  pub- 
lished their  religious  speculations  could  be  obtained  by  any 


seems  to  me,  ought  not  to  be  applied  but  because  I  think  that  the  mere 

to  the  Egyptian  system   but   with  observation  of  the  principal  pheno- 

great  reserve.     And  while  I  venture  mena,  and  attention  to  the  leading 

upon  an  explanation  where  he  has  thoughts  everywhere  expressed,  put 

shrunk  from  attempting  to  give  one,  us  at  once  in  possession  of  the  de- 

I  do  so  not  because  I  can  boast  of  sired  explanation, 
more  advanced  knowledge  than  his, 


2i3         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

one,  and  it  was  even  considered  a  necessary  condition  of 
future  blessedness  that  one  should  know  the  sacred  texts 
by  heart.  In  short,  the  only  limit  set  to  the  spread  of 
their  teaching  was  the  believers'  intellectual  capacity. 
Even  towards  foreigners  they  showed  no  reserve  in  the 
communications  they  made  with  regard  to  religious 
subjects.  Greeks  in  search  of  information  like  Herodotus, 
and  philosophers  like  Plato,  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  their 
instructions,  and  were  even  initiated  into  their  most  pro- 
found science.  The  only  subjects  as  to  which  they  felt 
obliged  to  maintain  silence  were  those  which  a  feeling  of 
reverence  forbade  them  to  make  common ;  as,  for  instance, 
the  name  of  the  highest  god,  from  the  utterance  of  which 
the  Israelites  shrank  in  like  manner.  But  every  person 
who  showed  any  real  interest  could  be  initiated,  and  even 
slaves  were  not  excluded.  Among  the  initiated,  however, 
we  find  in  every  case  the  spiritual  conception  and  the 
rude  sensuous  form  combined  together.  Chamus,  the 
son  of  Eamses  II.,  who  would  unquestionably  be  familiar 
with  the  deepest  mysteries,  was  at  the  same  time  zeal- 
ously devoted  to  the  Memphitic  bull- worship.  Accord- 
ingly the  problem,  how  two  things  apparently  so  irrecon- 
cilable could  go  together  remains  intact  thus  far,  and 
cannot  be  solved  by  accepting  the  supposition  of  an 
esoteric  and  exoteric  doctrine.1 

For  it  is  indeed  very  remarkable  how  men  could  express 
themselves  so  clearly  and  emphatically  about  the  nature 
of  the  deity  as  unseen  and  hidden,  as  we  have  seen  them 
so  often  do  in  the  preceding  chapters  ;  how  they  could 
name  him  the  "  soul  of  souls,"  "  the  spirit  more  spiritual 
than  all  spirits,"  and  the  self-existent  one,  uncreated,  un- 


1  Lepsius,  Die  Getter  der  vier  to  every  well-educated  person.  But 
Elementen,  p.  198,  says  truly,  "In  the  deeper  speculative  interpreta- 
as far  as  religious  representations  tion  or  rationale  must,  up  to  a  certain 
admit  of  being  clothed  in  image  or  point  (it  is  easy  to  understand),  be 
word  symbolism  at  all,  just  to  the  reserved  for  the  initiated  priests, 
same  extent  they,  for  that  very  and  must  be  to  that  extent  their 
reason,  become  exoteric,    accessible  secret." 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.         219 

begotten,  eternal,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  represent  him 
in  the  monstrous  shape  of  a  man  with  the  head  of  a  beast, 
or  actually  in  that  of  a  beast,  or  in  the  form  of  a  tree,  of  a 
pillar  with  cross  beams,  of  a  winged  disk,  and  even  in  the 
disgusting  form  in  which  the  god  Chem-Min  is  usually 
depicted. 

The  most  obvious  cause  of  this  phenomenon  lies,  I  think, 
in  the  symbolic-mystical  tendency  of  the  Egyptian  reli- 
gion, which  is  a  development  from  the  mythological  prin- 
ciple. A  symbol  is  a  simple  or  complex  thought  clothed 
in  a  sensuous  form.  A  myth  is  a  phenomenon  of  nature 
represented  as  the  act  of  a  person.  Usually  symbols 
originate  in  myths,  and  in  every  case  mythology  is  ante- 
cedent to  symbolism.  To  the  formation  of  mythology 
there  is  needful,  not  only  capacity  for  poetry,  but  also 
the  condition  of  a  roving  life,  of  conflict,  of  conquest ;  a, 
so  to  speak,  epic  condition  ;  a  state  of  coming  into  being 
and  taking  shape ;  not  fixity  and  order,  not  a  settled  and 
peaceful  life.  If  this  condition  of  struggle  preceding 
the  establishment  of  order  and  the  regular  institution  of 
church  and  state  is  of  long  duration ;  and  if,  in  addition, 
this  is  the  case  with  a  people  rich  in  imagination  and  in 
poetic  faculty,  the  mythology  of  such  a  people  will  like- 
wise be  rich  and  multiform  :  it  will,  after  having  at  length 
attained  a  settled  life,  proceed  to  transmute  its  myth- 
ology into  poetry  and  history,  to  glorify  it  by  art,  and  to 
make  it  the  groundwork  of  philosophical  speculation. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  epic  period  of  a  people  or  of  a 
religion  is  only  of  brief  duration,  and  if,  under  favouring 
circumstances,  such  a  people  passes  early  from  the  wander- 
ing hunter  or  shepherd  life  to  the  settled  agricultural 
condition,  in  that  case  the  faculty  of  forming  myths  is 
soon  lost,  the  myths  become  symbols,  and  symbolism 
asserts  itself,  while  the  mythology  is  cast  into  the  shade. 
The  latter  process  is  what  we  see  in  the  case  of  the  Egyp- 
tian people.  On  good  grounds  it  has  been  supposed  that 
it,  like  the  Aryan  peoples,  migrated  once  upon  a  time  from 


22o         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

Asia  to  the  West.  It  bad  thus  its  heroic  age,  its  period  of 
struggle  and  wandering,  "of  struggle  for  life."  This  does  not, 
however,  seem  to  have  lasted  long.  Mesopotamia  is  not  far 
distant  from  Africa,  and  the  tribes  with  whom  a  contention 
had  to  be  waged  for  possession  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
were,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  neither  numerous  nor  power- 
ful. When  a  settled  life,  an  ordered  government,  and 
art  along  with  it,  began  for  the  Egyptians,  their  mytho- 
logy had  as  yet  scarcely  had  time  to  grow.  It  is  possible 
that  the  speculative  powers  of  the  scholar,  the  imagination 
of  the  poet  and  artist  found  but  one  single  myth,  the. 
Osirian  sun  myth,  which  under  other  names  is  every- 
where the  same ;  and,  besides  this,  they  may  have  found 
a  wealth  of  mythic  representations  that  were  still  rude 
and  had  not  passed  into  anthropomorphism.  The  anthropo- 
morphic human  element  is  chiefly  represented  by  Osiris  and 
by  the  northern  Atum-Ra,  who  is  Osiris  in  another  guise. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  Egyptian,  like  the  other  peoples 
most  nearly  akin  to  him,  seems  to  have  had  a  certain 
hesitation  about  representing  deity  in  human  form,  and  con- 
sidered some  symbol,  some  monstrous  representation,  more 
in  keeping  with  the  reverence  due  to  the  deity.  A  pro- 
found feeling  of  God's  exaltation  above  mankind  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  Mesopotamian  religions  in  general ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Aryan  to 
give  a  more  prominent  place  to  the  relationship  between 
gods  and  men.  In  Egypt  we  find  both  these  charac- 
teristics, as  might  be  expected  in  the  case  of  a  people  who 
are  proved  by  their  language  to  have  been  related  on  the 
one  side  to  the  Aryans,  on  the  other  to  the  Semites. 

And  now  the  first  contrast  referred  to  can  be  explained. 
It  proceeds  from  the  symbolic  tendency  of  the  Egyptian 
religion  which  was  fostered  by  the  circumstances  we  have 
just  mentioned.  When  symbols  are  not  rightly  under- 
stood— as  usually  they  are  not  by  the  ignorant  multitude 
— they  naturally  lead  to  far  greater  deviations  than  mytho- 
logical (in  the  sense  of  anthropomorphic)  representations. 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.         221 

If   the  symbol  is  worshipped  for  its  own  sake,  if   the 
animal,  the  tree,  the  stone  is  regarded  as  the  deity  him- 
self, such  a  worship  ranks  lower  than  the  adoration  of  a 
god  like  the  Olympian  Zeus,  the  Attic  Athena,  the  Del- 
phic Apollo,  in  the  case  of  whom  the  whole  symbolism  is 
combined  with,  and  it  must  be  added,  concealed  in  a  human 
being,  the  highest  being  of  whom  we  have  any  actual  ex- 
perience.    If,  however,  the  symbol  is  understood,  if  the 
emblematic  form  is  distinguished  from  the  thought  latent 
in  it,  a  much  easier  task  with  symbols  than  with  myths, 
then  in  that  case  men  reach  a  spiritual  conception  much 
more  quickly,  and  are  not  offended  by  the  coarseness  and 
hideousness  of  the  emblem.     On  the  contrary,  a  certain 
attraction  is   felt  in  the  element  of  mystery,  and  fresh 
symbols  continue  to  be  employed  as  the  means  of  con- 
veying new  thoughts.     It  could  easily  happen  that  men 
might  in  this  way  become  entangled  in  a  wilderness  of 
mysticism,  but   they  could   not  so  easily  lose  the  con- 
sciousness that  a  deeper  meaning  was  latent  under  all  the 
forms,  and  they  would  be  in  no  danger  of  seeing  the  whole 
doctrines  of   their  faith  degenerate  into  a  mere  collec- 
tion of  meaningless  fables  whose  only  attraction  lies  in 
their  poetic  beauty.     Thus,   Christians   have  never  had 
entire  satisfaction  in  any  representation  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  in  human  shape,  even  though  traced  by  the  pencil 
of  a  Eafael  or  a  Michael  Angelo ;  yet  not  one,  not  even  the 
strictest  Protestant,  is  offended  by  the  emblematic  repre- 
sentation of  God  in  the  form  of  an  (all-seeing)  eye,  or  of 
the  operation  of  his  Spirit  in  the  form  of  a  dove.     These 
figures,  in  fact,  under  which  the  Egyptians  represented 
divine  beings,  unfamiliar  as  they  are  to  our  taste,  are 
more  reconcilable  with  a  purely  spiritual  and  exalted  con- 
ception of  deity  than  are  the  beautiful  and  noble  divine 
forms  of  Hellas. 

The  case  is  in  no  way  different  with  the  second  contrast 
I  referred  to,  the  lively  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  God 
conjoined  with  the  greatest  multiplicity,  the  most  extrava- 


222         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

gant  diversity  of  divine  persons.  Monotheism  is,  in  fact, 
expressed  in  the  clearest  terms  in  many  an  Egyptian 
treatise,  yet  it  would  not  be  easy  to  discover  a  richer 
polytheism  than  that  which  flourished  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile.  The  explanation  of  this  contrast  is,  in  part,  the  same 
as  that  of  the  other.  If  uncultivated  people  did  not  take 
offence  at  the  coarsely  sensual  symbols,  because  they  had 
the  idea  that  a  deep  sense  lay  hidden  behind  them,  and  that 
the  monstrous  representations  were  in  this  way  holy,  and 
also  because  they  were  not  yet  raised  to  a  high  enough 
point  of  development  to  feel  these  offensive  ;  if  the  learned, 
on  their  part,  did  not  object  to  these  representations  be- 
cause they  comprehended  their  meaning,  and  simply  did 
what  was  done  originally,  transferred  their  reverence  for 
the  mystery  to  that  which  veiled  it, — the  same  applies 
to  the  polytheism  which  had  increased  in  proportion  as 
monotheism  became  clearer  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
more  advanced.  As  yet  the  people  had  certainly  no  con- 
ception of  monotheism,  and  saw  nothing  to  offend  them 
in  the  multiplicity  of  gods  ;  each,  however,  chose  his  own 
god,  and,  as  a  rule,  worshipped  him  as  if  he  were  the  one 
only  god.  The  learned  regarded  the  many  divine  persons 
only  in  the  light  of  revelations,  manifestations ;  not,  as 
some  would  have  us  believe,  as  emanations  of  the  one 
immortal,  uncreated,  hidden  god.  The  gods  were  his  crea- 
tures. Ra  himself  creates  his  members,  and  his  members 
are  the  gods.  The  hidden  god  by  whom,  in  the  beginning, 
all  things  came  into  existence  (Turn  in  the  Book  of  the 
Dead),  is  a  being  who  is  one  only,  but  afterwards  he 
revealed  himself,  and  he  reveals  himself  continually  in 
innumerable  forms.  It  was  on  this  account  that  people 
were  so  tolerant  of  all  forms,  of  every  conception  of  deity, 
provided  it  was  confined  to  the  locality  of  its  home ;  and 
it  was  on  this  account  also  that  foreign  forms  of  religion 
were  so  easily  adopted.  Thus,  although  the  thought — 
God  is  one — was  expressed  ever  more  and  more  emphati- 
cally, polytheism  was   nevertheless   quietly   allowed   to 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.         223 

propagate  itself.     This  was  because,  to  the  mind  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  proposition,  God  is  one,  was  bound  up  with 
this  other,  his  manifestations  are  numberless.     It  was, 
however,  just  because  of   this  that,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  were  so  intolerant  of  every  form  of  religion  which 
laid  claim  to  being  the  only  true  one.     Thus  Apepi  failed 
in   his    attempt   to   reduce   the   pantheon  to   two   gods, 
Amun-ra  and  Sutech ;  and  Chunaten  was  equally  unsuc- 
cessful in  his  attempt  to  obtain  for  his  god,  Aten-ra,  a  life 
longer  than  the  duration  of  his  reign.     Such  a  claim  was, 
in  truth,  a  heresy,   against  which  the  learned,  and  the 
priests  in  particular,  felt  obliged  to  rise  in  revolt.     It  was 
the  substitution  of  one  single  revelation  of  god  for  the  one 
Most  Hio-h  over  all.     It  is  indeed  the  case  that,  for  ex- 
ample,  Amun,  Ka,  Ptah,  and  Sutech,  and  likewise  Osiris, 
Chnum,  and  Atum,  and  occasionally  Thot,  were  each  in 
particular  represented  as  the  "Most  High,  the  only  god. 
Men  had,  however,  been  accustomed  for  long  to  regard 
these  various   divinities  as  nothing  more  than  different 
names  for  the  same  god.     This  is  plainly  seen  from  com- 
binations like  Amun-ra- turn-harm achis,  Ptah-sokar-osiris, 
Ptah-chnum,  &c,  and  also  from  the  fact  that  invocations 
of  the  one  were  placed  in  inscriptions  below  the  image 
of  the   other.      Moreover,  political  motives  forbade  the 
extinction  of  any  one  of  the  forms,  and  especially  of  any 
of  the  local  worships  attached  to  considerable  towns  or  to 
important  districts. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  understand  the  main  idea 
of  the  Egyptian  religion.  According  to  the  form  of  its 
doctrine,  it  is  to  be  classed  with  those  in  which  symbolism 
preponderates ;  according  to  the  form  of  its  organisation, 
or,  if  it  is  preferred,  its  ecclesiastical  structure,  it  belongs 
to  the  category  theocratic.  In  these  respects  it  betrays 
its  close  relationship  to  the  Mesopotamian  (Semitic)  reli- 
gions, which  likewise  are  all  symbolical  and  theocratic. 
In  its  development  it  belongs,  not  to  the  exclusively 
monotheistic,  nor  to  those  in  which  polytheism  prepon- 


224         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

derates,  but  stands  just  at  the  point  at  which  men  try  to 
reconcile  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God  with  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  his  manifestations. 

Eegarded  from  the  other  side,  it  is  equally  akin  to  the 
Aryan  religions  by  its  tendency  to  pantheism,  its  rich 
mythology,  and  especially,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  ex- 
pression, its  theanthropism,  that  is,  the  king  being  not  only 
god  living  on  earth,  but  every  believer  being  destined  to 
become  at  his  death  Osiris  himself  in  the  realm  of  the 
under  world,  and  one  of  the  genii  of  light  who  accompany 
the  god  Ea  in  his  triumphant  course.  The  Egyptian 
religion  is  thus  actually  quite  as  much  pre-Semitic  as 
pre- Aryan,  for  it  is  the  representation  of  an  epoch  when 
Semitic  and  Aryan  had  not  as  yet  become  distinct. 

Every  religion  has  its  own  peculiar  character,  a  character 
not  defined  by  the  form  in  which  it  is  manifested  and 
the  degree  of  development  it  may  have  reached,  but  by 
the  leading  idea  it  expresses,  although  that  too  is  in 
intimate  connection  with  its  form  and  development.  The 
leading  thought  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  that  which  had 
on  the  whole  most  struck  the  Egyptian,  and  which  he 
accordingly  reproduced  most  prominently  in  his  theology, 
is :  life  in  its  eternal  unchangeable  foundation,  and  its 
innumerable  modes  of  manifestation.  "  Life,  health,  well- 
being  "  (anch  uza  seneb)  is  his  motto,  the  sum  of  all 
his  wishes.  The  indestructibleness  of  life,  in  spite  of  the 
hostile  powers  of  death  and  of  destruction,  was  what  con- 
stituted his  whole  faith  and  all  his  hope.  This  was  his 
great  dogma,  and  all  his  innumerable  symbols  were  called 
in  to  aid  him  in  giving  it  expression. 

The  gods  and  the  kings  in  their  character  of  divine 
persons  have  always  the  emblem  of  life  in  their  hand. 
The  divine  triads,  likewise — father,  mother,  and  son — give 
expression  to  the  same  thought.  In  everything;  in  the 
shining  phenomena  of  the  heavens ;  above  all,  in  the  course 
of  the  sun,  which  daily  died  and  rose  again ;  in  the  course 
of  the  seasons,  regulated  for  him  by  the  periodical  rising 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.  225 

and  falling  of  the  Nile  ;  in  the  inexhaustible  fertility  of  the 
earth; — in  all  these  changing  phenomena  the  Egyptian  saw 
the  traces  of  eternal  life,  of  persistency  in  the  midst  of 
change,  and  he  made  an  application  of  it  to  human  life. 
Hence  it  is  that  his  highest  deity  is  in  all  cases  at  once 
both  sun-god  and  god  of  fertility,  and  in  most  cases  water 
or  Nile  god  as  well,  and  a  type  of  man  himself.  Hence 
it  is  that  his  one  myth,  the  best  representation  of  which 
is  the  Osiris  myth,  may  be  correctly  explained  from  any 
of  these  considerations.  It  is  at  once  a  myth  of  the 
year,  a  Nile  myth,  and  a  myth  of  immortality.  Hence  it 
comes  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  takes  the  chief 
place  in  his  theology.  Hence,  lastly,  it  is  that  the  word 
by  which  he  renders  the  abstract  idea,  God  (nuter  or  ncter), 
literally  signifies  *  the  one  ever  renewing  his  youth,  the 
imperishable  one."  1 

The  same  leading  thought  which  forms  the  basis  of 
Egyptian  theology  is  reflected  likewise  in  the  Egyptian 
state.  There  too  the  greatest  variety  and  freedom  of 
forms  found  a  centre  of  unity  in  the  absolute  divine  office 
of  king.  The  king  is  "  the  lifegiver  like  the  sun."  His 
kingdom  is  eternal,  and  his  ideal  is  "  to  reign  for  millions 
of  years  upon  the  throne  of  Horos." 

Even  taking  into  account  all  the  difference  in  special 
points,  the  forms  of  government,  in  spite  of  the  great 
revolutions  that  took  place  repeatedly,  remained  wonder- 
fully uniform  and  essentially  unaltered  all  through  the 
long  succession  of  centuries  during  which  the  Egyptian 
kingdom  existed.     Each  new  period,  even  after  long-con- 

1  Brugsch,   Hierogl.   dem.    W.B.,  1 879,    Lon.,    Williams   &  Norgate, 

in  voce.     De  Rouge  also  gives  this  1880,  p.  93  et  seq.,  has  endeavoured 

explanation.     He  holds  nuter  is  de-  to  prove  that  the  explanation  of  the 

rived  from  the  verb  nuter  —  to  renew,  word  nuter  by  M.  de  Rouge,  although 

and   says    (Rev.    Arch.,    i860,   i.   p.  generally  accepted  by  Egyptologists, 

351),  "I  think  the  idea  which  has  ought  to  be  rejected,  and  that  the 

given  rise  to  the  choice  of  this  word  word  originally  signified  the  strong, 

for  God  is  eternal  youth  periodically  the   powerful.       It    would    then   be 

renewed."     "  The  lord  of  centuries  "  entirely   synonymous   with  El,    Ilu, 

is  a  very  usual  name  for  the  highest  the   strong,   the   powerful,    the   ap- 

god.     Since  that  time,  M.  le  Page  pellation    of    God    among    Semitic 

Renouf,   in   the    Hibbert   Lectures,  peoples. 

P 


22Ó         HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

tinned  confusion,  is  in  reality  a  renewal,  a  repetition  of 
what  had  been  before. 

The  same  thing  may  be  observed  in  regard  to  art.  In 
harmony  with  the  serious  and  mysterious  symbolism,  its 
products  are  rather  grand  and  impressive  than  pleasing 
and  attractive.  In  connection  with  the  erection  of  monu- 
ments likewise,  "  for  millions  of  eras,"  "  for  centuries,"  is 
a  very  common  and  favourite  expression.  Massiveness, 
durability,  is  a  principal  characteristic  of  Egyptian  art. 

And  although  art  too  had  its  period  of  splendour  and 
its  time  of  decline,  although  an  attentive  observer  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  subject  can  see  the  unmistakable  differ- 
ence between  the  productions  of  the  different  periods,  the 
principal  types  nevertheless  remain  unaltered  from  Chufu 
to  Arnasis,  nay,  even  down  to  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies, 
and  to  a  certain  extent  on  even  into  the  period  of  the 
Eoman  emperors. 

In  still  closer  connection  than  religion  and  art  are  reli- 
gion and  morality.  Between  these  two  there  is  always 
mutual  action  and  reaction ;  and  in  Egypt,  likewise,  it  is 
evident  that  both  religion  and  morality  are  mutually 
dependent  on  each  other. 

The  purity  of  Egyptian  morality  has  caused  some 
astonishment.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  it 
remained  stationary  at  the  elementary  stage,  and  its  moral 
maxims  never  rose  to  the  rank  of  principles.  The  maxims 
are,  at  all  events,  very  beautiful,  and  in  part  they  are 
found  recurring  in  the  Mosaic  law  and  even  in  the  Gos- 
pel. Some  of  these  have  been  already  cited  (p.  1 29  et  seq.) 
The  virtues  praised  and  celebrated  in  these  are  again  and 
again  piety,  loving-kindness  and  pity,  mildness,  modera- 
tion in  deeds  and  words,  chastity,  protection  of  the  weak, 
kindly  dispositions  towards  inferiors,  reverence  to  supe- 
riors, and  also  respect  of  property  to  the  very  smallest 
iota.  If  we  inquire  what  testimony  the  deceased  must  be 
able  to  bring  forward  in  their  favour  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, we  find  it  is  partly  negative.     "  I  have  been  guilty 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.  227 

of  no  sins  against  men ;  I  have  not  oppressed  the  miser- 
able ;  I  have  not  imposed  work  beyond  his  powers  on  any 
officer ;  I  have  allowed  no  master  to  maltreat  his  slave ;  I 
have  done  injury  to  nobody ;  nor  have  I  caused  any  to 
weep  or  to  perish  with  hunger.    I  have  not  told  lies,  or 
stolen,   or  committed  murder;  I  have  not  even  ordered 
anybody  to  be  treacherously  put  to  death.     I  have  not 
prayed  that  it  might  be  said  I  had  done  so ;  I  have  not 
committed  adultery ;  I  have  not  been  a  hypocrite,  or  licen- 
tious, or  a  drunkard.    I  have  not  falsified  weights  or  mea- 
sures ;  I  have  not  appropriated  the  animals  of  the  divine 
offerings,  or  stolen  anything  belonging  to  the  deity.     I 
have  not  taken  the  milk  from  the  mouth  of  the  nurslings. 
I  have  blasphemed  neither  the  king  nor  my  father,  nor 
have  I  mocked  God,  or  despised  God  in  my  heart."  1    But, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  find  positive  duties,  too,  which  the 
deceased  must  be  able  to  declare  that  he  fulfilled  when 
he  appears  before  the  Judge  in  the  hall  of  double  right- 
eousness.    "  I  have  given  bread  to  him  that  was  hungry, 
water  to  him  that  was  thirsty,  clothes  to  the  naked,  and 
shelter  to  the  wanderer ; "  whence  we  see  that,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Egyptian  moralist,  it  was  not  enough  to  cease  to 
do  evil.     Such  assurances  are  very  frequent.     The  ideal 
prince  or  nobleman  (erpct  ha)  is  described  as  being  one 
faithful  to  his  mother,   zealous  for  his  mistress,  with  a 
pleasant  tongue,  sweet  of  speech,  courteous  towards  great 
and  small.     Very  beautiful  is  the  eulogy  upon  an  illus- 
trious personage  of  this  sort.     "  His  love  was  the  food  of 
the  poor,  the  blessing  of  the  weak,  the  riches  of  him  who 
had  nothing."     A  kindly  spirit  seems  to  breathe  upon  us 
from  these  precepts,  and  it  is  not  without  a  show  of  rea- 
son that  it  has  been  asserted  that  such  pure  moral  prin- 
ciples could  not  be  the  fruit  of  a  religion  the  forms  of 
which  were  still  so  imperfect,  and,  in  some  instances,  so 

1  The   so-called  ancient  canon  is  Birch,  in  Bunsen  :  Egypt's  Place  in 

found  in  Pleyte,  Etudes  Egyptolo-  Universal  History,  pt.  v.  p.   253  <  t 

giques,    pt.    vi.  p.    16S  et  seq. ;    the  seq. 
more    modern     one,  translated   by 


228  HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

unchaste,  and  that,  therefore,  morality  must  have  been 
totally  independent  of  the  religion. 

The  truth  is,  that  with  the  Egyptians,  moral  teaching 
was  not  at  all  divorced  from  theology,  but  that  they  both 
belonged  to  and  corresponded  to  each  other.  The  rude 
and,  to  our  ideas,  offensive  symbols  did  not  prevent  the 
religious  conceptions  of  the  Egyptian  from  being  amongst 
the  purest  in  all  antiquity.  We  have  already  noticed 
his  belief  in  the  oneness  and  spirituality  of  God.  And 
besides  this,  we  have  to  take  into  account  the  utterances 
of  the  Egyptian  poets  or  scribes  which  refer  to  the  being 
of  God  in  his  relation  to  humanity,  which  are  in  no 
respect  inferior  to  those  of  the  psalmists  and  prophets  of 
Israel.  The  feeling  of  dependence  on  the  deity  is  no- 
where more  profound.  The  kings  describe  all  their 
mighty  deeds  as  being  due  to  the  assistance  of  the  deity. 
It  is  his  god  who  guides  the  king,  who  imbues  his  limbs 
with  strength,  who  spreads  his  spirit  and  the  dread  of 
him  through  all  lands,  and  grants  him  victory  and  might 
over  all  nations ;  who  communicates  to  him  where  he 
must  go,  and  who  deprives  the  nostrils  of  his  enemies  of 
the  breath  of  life.  On  the  other  hand,  the  king,  or  man 
in  general,  is  pledged  on  his  part  to  glorify  the  deity  by 
his  works  (Ins.  of  Shashank  I.  at  Silsilis).  Everything  is 
from  God.  The  calamities  brought  upon  the  country  by 
Cambyses  are  referred  to  on  the  so-called  statuette  nao- 
phore.  "  Great  calamity  over  the  whole  country,  the 
like  of  which  never  was,  great  trials  sent  by  God."  And 
Ptah-hotep  says  to  his  pupil,  "When  you  cultivate 
terh  (?)  upon  your  land,  it  is  God  who  bestows  it  upon 
you ;  the  great  provider  for  the  satisfying  of  your  mouth." L 
In  the  same  book  a  good  son  is  called  a  gift  of  God. 
Another  lesson  taught  there  is,  that  "  God  lives  through 
that  which  is  good  and  pure." 

In  this  last  expression  the  idea  of  the  holiness  of  God 
is  latent. 

1  See  Cbabas,  Rev.  Arch.,  1S51,  i.  23,  715,  723. 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  MORAL  RESULTS.         229 

Such  religious  conceptions  are  not  only  not  inconsistent 
with  a  pure  morality,  they  are  distinctly  favourable  to  it. 
A  religious  teaching  that  includes  conceptions  such  as 
these  of  the  deity  and  his  relation  to  mankind,  ranks 
higher  than  a  collection  of  myths,  more  or  less  intelli- 
gible, but  for  the  most  part  unpractical ;  and  it  also 
ranks  higher  than  a  set  of  prescriptions  concerning  cere- 
monies and  customs.  Such  religious  teaching  does  not 
occupy  itself  with  that  which  is  outside  of  life,  but  goes 
into  and  takes  hold  of  life,  and  must  hence  have  exercised 
influence  over  it.  When  man  feels  himself  so  entirely 
dependent  on  God,  and  is  conscious  of  owing  everything 
to  Him,  and  when  in  his  mind  he  connects  all  that  is  good 
and  pure  with  God,  when  he  feels  himself  called  to  live 
to  the  glory  of  God ;  or,  as  it  is  expressed  in  chap,  cxxvii. 
of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  when  he  feels  it  incumbent  on 
him  to  do  God's  good  pleasure,  and  through  his  love  to 
bind  God  to  himself,  man's  moral  consciousness  rests  not 
merely  on  the  feeling  of  his  responsibility  towards  his 
fellow-men,  it  is  likewise  due  to  his  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility to  a  higher  superhuman  power. 

The  Egyptian  gods  accordingly  became,  for  the  most 
part — certainly  the  principal  gods  became — moral  beings. 
Thus  Ptah  is  called  Lord  of  the  Ell,  or,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  of  righteousness ;  and  consequently  law  and  also 
property  is  under  his  divine  protection,  and  transgression 
in  respect  of  them  is  an  offence  against  God.  The  pro- 
minent part  taken  by  Ma,  the  goddess  of  truth  and  of 
righteousness  itself,  in  the  whole  symbolism  and  mytho- 
logy deserves  notice  in  this  connection.  When  the 
Egyptian  wished  to  give  assurance  of  his  honesty  and 
good  faith,  he  called  Thot  to  witness,  the  advocate  in  the 
heavenly  court  of  justice,  without  whose  justification  no 
soul  could  stand  in  the  day  of  judgment.  The  entire 
symbolism,  as  it  sprang  from  the  great  myth  of  the 
Egyptians,  depicts  the  struggle  between  light  and  dark- 
ness, fertilitv  and  barrenness,  life  and  death  ;  and  in  that 


23o        HISTORY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION. 

idea  there  is  a  moral  power  already  latent.  But  the 
moral  significance  was  given  to  it  by  the  people  them- 
selves. Osiris  was  not  simply  the  sun-god ;  this  signifi- 
cation was  even  completely  thrown  into  the  background 
by  the  later  conception  of  him.  He  is  the  good  being 
(Unnefer),  in  opposition  to  the  evil  power  by  whom  he  is 
persecuted,  Apepi  the  serpent,  or,  at  a  later  period,  Set, 
his  brother.  And,  to  crown  all,  we  have  that  striking 
feature  in  the  religious  views  of  the  sons  of  Ham,  the 
judgment  of  the  dead,  with  its  great  tribunal  of  forty-two 
judges,  who  each  institute  an  inquiry  as  to  one  particular 
transgression;  and  presiding  there  we  see  the  Great  God, 
the  Lord  of  Ages,  Osiris  himself  with  his  unerring  balance 
and  his  sure  retribution.  All  this  shows  us  that  a  moral 
life,  a  life  of  holiness  and  beneficence,  was  conceived  of 
as  being  a  matter  of  solemn  obligation  towards  the  deity 
himself.  To  become  like  god  Osiris,  a  benefactor,  a  good 
being,  persecuted  but  justified,  judged  but  pronounced 
innocent,  was  looked  upon  as  the  ideal  of  every  pious 
man,  and  as  the  condition  on  which  alone  eternal  life 
could  be  obtained  and  the  means  by  which  it  could  be 
continued. 


THE   END. 


BKINTED    BY    BALLANTYNE,    HANSON    AND    CO. 
EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON. 


